If you have kids heading to Mexico for Spring Break, you may want to re-think those plans. The U.S. State Department is increasing the number of places it says Americans should avoid as brutal drug violence, violent carjackings and random kidnappings continue to weave a blanket of terror in certain regions.

A travel advisory issued this week warned that U.S. citizens have fallen victim to crime and violence as drug-cartels engage in violent struggles to control drug trafficking routes, "including homicide, gun battles, kidnapping, carjacking and highway robbery."

The latest advisory warns against visiting parts of Aguascalientes, Guerrero and Nayarit in central Mexico, and says to avoid any non-essential travel in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa and Zacatecas as well as Tamaulipas and Michoacan.

The State Department is also upholding the warning they made last April against non-essential travel to parts of Sonora, south of Arizona, and central Jalisco state, where drug cartel violence has become more widespread.

"Gun battles have occurred in broad daylight on streets and in other public venues, such as restaurants and clubs," the advisory says. "During some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area."

The State Department also says criminals use stolen cars and trucks to create roadblocks on major thoroughfares, preventing the military and police from responding to criminal activity.

"We recommend that you defer travel to the areas indicated in this Travel Warning and to exercise extreme caution when traveling throughout the northern border region."

However, the warning also counters that millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business and says the Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations.

"Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region," the State Department said.

According to the most recent homicide figures published by the Mexican government, 47,515 people were killed in narcotics-related violence in Mexico between Dec. 1, 2006, and Sept. 30, 2011, with 12,903 narcotics-related homicides in the first nine months of 2011 alone. While most of those killed in narcotics-related violence have been members of TCOs, innocent persons have also been killed.

The number of U.S. citizens reported to the Department of State as murdered in Mexico increased from 35 in 2007 to 120 in 2011.