I applaud the spirit of adventure in this but also think and really, really hope he's both careful and prudent, along with a strong dose of simple luck that he'll also need. Mexico is not what it used to be. Some parts are okay still but much of the country, especially outside the cities, has become extremely dangerous even to people not at all involved in organized crime or other idiotic things.
A few years ago an American cyclist did the same thing, with a cross-country trek that garnered media attention. At one point he disappeared and only later was found dismembered next to the wreck of his bike. Some local drug trafficker was blamed (maybe dubiously) 1. Again in 2018, two European cyclists passing through the south of the country on a similar sort of trek vanished and were later found mutilated and murdered at the bottom of a ravine. 2. There was even one case I recall but can't find in which a cyclist was killed and also dismembered specifically because military security was provided to him while passing through a certain crime infested region. Apparently the local criminal groups felt insulted by this, but who really knows.
There have been other incidents, many, and many that simply get too buried in the waves of violence to receive media attention.
A few years ago an American cyclist did the same thing, with a cross-country trek that garnered media attention. At one point he disappeared and only later was found dismembered next to the wreck of his bike. Some local drug trafficker was blamed (maybe dubiously) 1. Again in 2018, two European cyclists passing through the south of the country on a similar sort of trek vanished and were later found mutilated and murdered at the bottom of a ravine. 2. There was even one case I recall but can't find in which a cyclist was killed and also dismembered specifically because military security was provided to him while passing through a certain crime infested region. Apparently the local criminal groups felt insulted by this, but who really knows.
There have been other incidents, many, and many that simply get too buried in the waves of violence to receive media attention.
1. https://archive.ph/Ux4WP
2. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/cyclists-on-round-the-...