Mexico is not only cartels and drugs, there are many states where violence is less than any european or american city. I live in Queretaro, is the second more secure place to live in Mexico.
You wont be able to live here with 1000 dollars, 3000 dollars per month is a good salary, Mexico City is 2 hours from Queretaro so you are able to take advantage of the big city, specially the airport and fly to cancun, los cabos, etc for a really low price.
Queretaro is full of foreigners, there are a lot of americans, french, germans, etc. There are many IT companies from US, specially from Texas, there is a fly directly from Houston and Dallas to the local airport.
Here is a video made by foreigner students.
http://vimeo.com/31238388