Lopez, a 26-year-old farm worker from Wisconsin, was in Laredo on Friday, making final preparations on his way to the Mexican state of Guanajuato to visit family for the holidays. He goes home almost every year, but this year he is more concerned than usual.

It's not like the trip is ever a breeze. Bandits on Mexican highways target paisanos, the Spanish word for "countryman," used to describe Mexican nationals headed to the interior, their vehicles laden with personal belongings and presents, to visit relatives for the holidays.

Lopez said friends of his were robbed in 2007 and 2009. But this year he has heard about the Zetas, a band of drug traffickers and organized criminals targeting travelers on the roads in northern Mexico.

"I think it's more dangerous now," Lopez said. "We try to go nonstop until we're farther inside the republic."

Safety measures

About 800,000 paisanos go back to Mexico every year, according to Mexico's tourism ministry. Of those, 70,000 to 75,000 will pass through Laredo's international bridges, said Miguel Angel Isidro, the Mexican consul general in Laredo.

That number has decreased slightly in recent years, which Isidro blamed on the economic downturn. Mexicans living in the United States have less money to return home, he said.

Northern Mexico has been torn apart by warring drug cartels. After two years of quiet, the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas from Laredo to Brownsville, descended into violence this year.

Mexican federal police and the military will have an increased presence on the country's highways, but Isidro played down the danger, saying people traveling across the country need to take common-sense measures on the road, such as traveling during the day and changing drivers or resting every few hours.

The government is taking some safety measures this year, said Mario Pérez, the director of the Paisano program for the Mexican consulate in Houston. The tourism ministry is organizing convoys of 20 to 30 vehicles and has a hotline available for paisanos to call to learn about safe routes into Mexico, Pérez said.

Although the convoys will not be escorted by police or military, they will be accompanied by government employees who provide roadside services and are in contact with authorities, he said.

'You cannot go alone'

Cesar Gonzalez, 29, said he will return to his hometown of Ciudad Acuña, across the border from Del Rio. Gonzalez, who works for an ambulance service in San Antonio, said he visits his family in Acuña at least once a month.

Gonzalez said he never goes to see relatives in Monterrey anymore, partly because of the stories of violence on Mexico's northern highways.

Another group of holiday travelers hopes the measures touted by the Mexican government will help them in what some described as a nail-biting journey from Mexico's northern to southern border.

Known as "transmigrantes," they are the Central American immigrants who in the weeks before each Christmas converge at the Los Indios Free Trade Bridge south of Harlingen, the bridge designated by the Mexican government to process them.

They come from all over the United States in old pickups full of appliances and sundry goods difficult to obtain in their hometowns, often towing one or more second-hand cars to sell or give to relatives.

The quiet rural highway leading to the crossing has in the past two years become their own "welcome center." As they wait for the U.S. government outbound inspection, speeded lately with drive-by X-ray scanners and additional Customs personnel, they find travel buddies, agreeing to travel in caravans and watch out for one another.

"It's not safe like it was three or four years ago," said Miguel Bicilo, of Mazatenango, Guatemala. "When I cross the border, I feel. ... I feel terrible. You don't know when you're attacked if it's the police trying to steal from you or now Los Zetas.

"A few years ago, you could travel at night, now you cannot. You cannot go alone. Everyone knows it's better to stop at one location, where people are together."

Bicilo, who works construction in Beaumont, Calif., said he had many friends who were too frightened by news of violence to attempt the trip at all.

"It's like you're trying your luck," he said. "When you cross the border, it's 'God, help us.' That's why I love America. I feel safe here."

Express-News Staff Writer Lynn Brezosky contributed to this report from Brownsville.

jbuch@express-news.net