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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2007 
Tijuana Killings Continue, Despite Army Crackdown
 Reuters
| | Francisco Villegas Peralta talks about the fear of being kidnapped in Tijuana, while sitting in the living room of his recently purchased home in Chula Vista, Calif., Monday, Jan. 8, 2007. Villegas, who heads the Tijuana chapter of Mexico's restaurant association, is just one of many Mexican business leaders moving out of Tijuana. He said he knew he had to get out of Tijuana, Mexico, one July morning when three SUVs trailed him from his house through Tijuana's streets. He escaped, and moved soon after with his wife and three children to a one-story house in Chula Vista. (AP/Lenny Ignelzi) |
At least eight people have been killed in the northern Mexican border city of Tijuana this year, officials say, despite the arrival of 3,300 soldiers and federal police to fight drug gang violence.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has made fighting violent crime his first priority since taking power on December 1. He immediately sent 7,000 troops to the violent western state of Michoacan and later dispatched 3,300 to Tijuana.
But Tijuana Police Chief Luis Javier Algorri said murders have continued unabated, with eight killed in the new year.
Last year, on average, one person was murdered a day, in Tijuana -- one of Mexico's seediest border cities and a favorite party destination for U.S. college students.
According to local media reports, the victims of the latest killings were found riddled with bullets, typical of the more than 2,000 gangland-style murders reported across Mexico last year.
As part of Calderon's anti-crime blitz, soldiers confiscated police officers' guns last week during a hunt for corrupt officers. Since then, police have received a wave of death threats, like "now that you have no guns, more heads will roll," Algorri said late Monday night.
While soldiers armed with assault rifles are searching cars at checkpoints around the city, many of the roughly 2,300 municipal police are refusing to go on patrol unarmed.
Algorri said they were waiting for the defense ministry to tell them when their weapons would be returned. He has also asked local prosecutors to investigate the death threats.
The seizure of about 1,600 guns has underscored a widespread belief that many of Mexico's poorly paid and badly equipped local police are on the drug gangs' payroll.
Even honest cops are seen as ineffective against powerful gangs like Tijuana's Arellano Felix cartel and rival smugglers from the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
Tijuana sees about two kidnappings a week.
Calderon's anti-drug sweep has helicopters hovering over Tijuana and navy ships patrolling nearby Pacific beaches where traffickers offload South American cocaine bound for the United States. |
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