BajaNomad - Tijuana Caught in the Crossfire

Tijuana Caught in the Crossfire

SUNDOG - 10-20-2006 at 07:41 PM

Tijuana Caught in the Crossfire

Is Tijuana Safe?
Posted: 10/19/2006 at 09:55:08 PM PDT
Updated: 10/19/2006 at 10:01:17 PM PDT
by Deborah Brancheau

On October 16, Tijuana mayor (municipal president) Jorge Hank Rhon held a press conference at the San Diego Association of Governments' headquarters downtown to dispel what he considers to be myths surrounding the safety of tourists in the city of Tijuana. In the wake of recent media coverage concerning a recent outbreak of violent crime, many San Diegans have been wary of traveling to their southern neighbor fearful that they may be caught in the crossfire.
“The city is as safe as San Diego for any visitor,” Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon said during the news conference. “The incidents there have been very well publicized, and that's what's making everybody believe that in fact it's a dangerous city. It's not.”

According to Hank, crime in Tijuana is down due to the implementation of high-tech monitoring systems and an investment in 700 new police officers (an increase from 1600 to 2300) equip with new patrol cars and weapons. Since he took office in 2004, Tijuana has invested more than $20 million in the fight against crime, he said, while taking steps to clean up corruption in the police department according to Luis Javier Algorri Franco, Tijuana's top police official, who also attended the conference.

The conference was arranged in response to the rising media coverage surrounding the upsurge in violent crime in the past two months. On August 14, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix and seven other men were arrested, when the Coast Guard intercepted their boat 25 miles off the coast of Baja California Sur. Arellano, leader of the Arellano-Félix cartel, is accused of leading a massive conspiracy that brought tons of drugs into the United States, laundered millions of dollars and is responsible for killings here and in Mexico. He may face the death penalty.

It is believe that much of the violence in the region is the aftermath of the arrest with other rival groups possibly moving into the Tijuana area, offering generous cash incentives. Yet, most experts believe that the violence is due to the cartel going after rivals and traitors in an attempt to preserve its claim on Tijuana.

Nevertheless, the violence has reached an all-time high. At least five Tijuana law enforcement officers were murdered since Arellano's capture while a string of bodies were found dumped along the roadside with all signs pointing towards retaliation. However, Hank explains that this should not concern tourists.

"They were not killed there," said Hank. "They are killed either in a home, on a ranch, in a warehouse, anywhere but on the street. They are dumped on the street in order for the others from the same cartel to realize what's happening."

Regardless, U.S. and Mexican citizens have also become victims of the escalating

Mayor Hank Rhon says Tijuana is as safe as
San Diego

Copyright©2006 sandiego.com, Inc.violence in Tijuana and other parts of Mexico. On September 14, Shaleece Louise Santiago, 30, and a waitress were gunned down in an attack on a group of policemen eating at the Mi Chante restaurant in Tijuana. The two women had no connection to the officers or the gunmen, yet, lost their lives for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Santiago's murder occurred on the same day the U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a warning to American travelers. The warning claimed that narcotics-related violence had claimed 1,500 lives in Mexico up to that point and that "in recent months there have been execution-style murders of Mexican and U.S. citizens in Tamaulipas (particularly Nuevo Laredo), Michoacan, Baja California, Guerrero and other states."

The report also mentioned that "U.S. citizens have also been involved in random shootings on major highways outside of Mexico City, Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana and other areas throughout Mexico."

As Mayor Hank pointed out, the cities mentioned in the U.S. Embassy warning did not highlight Tijuana. Yet, during the Biodiversity Council visit to Tijuana the week of September 24, SANDAG employees were banned from traveling to Tijuana on official business. “We won't be going there for meetings in the near future," said Anne Steinberger, SANDAG's communications director, "until things get more settled down there and we're satisfied that the safety of our employees is improved."

During the news conference this week, SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos explained that as far as employees traveling to Tijuana at this time and in the future, "we will look at it on a case-by-case basis."

Concerns still remain for businessmen in the region as well as those that travel to Mexico for work regarding a recent surge in kidnappings. According to Daniel Romero Mejia, the president of Tijuana 's Business Coordinating Council (CEE), local, state and federal police forces are unprepared to effectively fight public insecurity and organized crime. Even though the federal Ministry of Public Security said more than 90 members of kidnapping rings, mainly consisting of current or former police officers, have been arrested since the implementation of Operation Safe Mexico in June 2005, Mejia and others believe that Mexican law enforcement authorities are outmatched by criminal violence.

"The police have done their intelligence and investigative work," Romero insisted, "(but) we haven't seen the expected results, given that kidnappings, forced disappearances and shoot-outs in broad daylight are daily news."

Additionally the number of kidnappings that resulted in murder has increased. In a recent study by Baja California's Citizen Council for Public Security and Legal Justice, a non-governmental organization, Baja California ranked fifth nationally in the number of kidnap victims murdered by their captors. According to the data compiled by the group, 22 kidnap victims in Baja California were killed from 1995 to February 2006.

Nonetheless, the majority of crime in Tijuana is the result of organized crime related to drug trafficking. The drug trafficking problem is just as much the fault of the United States as it is Mexico considering increase border security and the fact that the U.S. is the largest market for drugs in the world.

"Your border keeps getting better and better and tougher and tougher for the drug dealers," said Hank. "That makes them stay longer in Tijuana. And that makes some of the drugs get distributed in Tijuana which has given us a huge problem. We recognize drug addiction as an illness that has to be treated and we have over 100,000 people that are ill."

Even though there is a market for drugs in Tijuana, dealers are desperate to cross the border into the U.S. "The biggest drug user in the world is the states," said Hank, "and the biggest state is California. The drug has to come from South America to California and it obviously passes through Tijuana. So when there is a cartel problem, someone is imprisoned, then they start fighting for control and that is why there should be a more combined effort in order to solve the problem."

"I don't see any detentions of big drug cartel bosses publicized in the U.S. I think they're done but they just don't publicize them."

Whether or not the media publicizes the capture of these criminals, Tijuana officials will be hard pressed to combat the growing concern surrounding violent crime in their city. With business and community leaders, the U.S. Embassy, and local civic organizations expressing anxiety over traveling to Tijuana and other border cities, claims that the city is safe is a tough pill to swallow for many San Diegans.

Von - 10-20-2006 at 07:51 PM

:lol: