| | |  Americas & Beyond | August 2008 
Kidnappings are Driving Baja Citizens to US
 Hiram Soto - San Diego Union-Tribune
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 |  | The FBI in San Diego reports a dramatic increase in the number of kidnappings in San Diego County believed to be linked to organized crime. |  | | | |
San Diego - He leaves for Tijuana early in the morning and comes back to his rented Eastlake home late at night, always taking a different route, even using different cars. He rarely ventures into the streets since criminals kidnapped and killed a close relative, and after surviving a kidnap attempt himself.
A lawyer, he speaks reluctantly, anonymously, and scared for his life.
“My life is ridiculous,” he said. “Some people can manage their business from San Diego. I can't. I have to meet my clients in person. But at least my family is safe.”
For years, wealthy Tijuana families have bought and moved into homes in exclusive South County neighborhoods for convenience and for greater economic opportunities. They generally have legal residency or are U.S. citizens.
But these days, kidnappings or the threat of them have pushed many small-business owners and professionals north of the border, even if they have to live here illegally.
Yet moving here no longer guarantees that they won't be kidnapped.
As an unintended consequence of Mexican efforts to weaken drug gangs, drug traffickers around Tijuana are turning to abducting U.S. citizens and residents in Southern California and holding them in Mexico as a new way to get money, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.
The FBI in San Diego reports a dramatic increase in the number of kidnappings in San Diego County believed to be linked to organized crime: from 10 in 2005 to 26 in 2007. Since October, there have been 18 cases.
“It has almost become an epidemic,” FBI spokeswoman April Langwell said.
She said the biggest increase has been with U.S. citizens or residents traveling across the border for business or family and being seized there. But there have also been cases of victims being nabbed in San Diego County and taken to Mexico.
Baja California's attorney general, Rommel Moreno, said transnational kidnappings are a new way of operating for these criminal groups, mainly in California, “and so we are seeking collaboration with the United States.”
In Chula Vista, there have been three known cases of kidnappings linked to Mexican organized crime since December, according to police logs obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune through a public records request. They do not provide names and give few details.
Two apparently were mistaken identities. In one case, a man was killed while his brother was released. The second involved a victim who was tortured and then released.
In the third case, two armed men kidnapped a victim and demanded $100,000. Police do not know what happened to the victim, and relatives became uncooperative and left the area.
A businessman in San Ysidro who asked to remain anonymous said he hired personal security after getting word that a family member was the target of a kidnapping ring.
“I'm really worried about this because I am not a gangster, I'm not in organized crime and I'm not in any illicit business,” he said. “But we decided to hire security to send a message that we are not easy targets.”
There are no statistics on how many families have fled Tijuana since Mexico sent more than 3,000 federal troops to clamp down on drug trafficking and crime about 18 months ago.
But there are signs of the exodus: Real estate agents and property managers in San Diego say they are placing higher numbers of Tijuana families at a moments' notice. There are zero-vacancy rates in parts of Chula Vista, and an unprecedented number of a well-to-do homes in Tijuana for sale or rent.
There's even marketing directed at this group.
“Feeling unsafe?” asks an advertisement in Spanish published by a San Diego magazine. It then promises families help in finding homes to buy or rent in San Diego, assistance with visas and Sentri fast-pass border crossing cards, and even help enrolling their children in U.S. schools.
Dave Wilson, a broker for a property management company in South County, says he has seen an increase in rental inquiries from Tijuanenses.
So far this year his company has placed six families, compared with two or three all last year. Most are paying monthly rents of $1,800 or more.
“They are usually looking for the middle-to upper-range properties,” he said.
Most of those who have moved are not willing to tell their story. But interviews with people who know them – relatives and friends, former Tijuana neighbors, and San Diego-area business people – reveal how their lives have been upended.
“These people are living a nightmare,” said Lorenzo Leon, an agent who sells properties on both sides of the border. “They are in a terrible situation. They come over here, and what do they do?
“They're not permanent residents or citizens, and they can't work directly in Tijuana either. They can't buy a home because of the credit crunch and so they stay with friends or family, or they rent. They are living in limbo.”
Chula Vista police Chief Richard Emerson says it could be hard for kidnappers to operate across the border because many are used to working in tandem with corrupt police officers.
“They won't find that kind of support here,” he said. “But that's not to say they could not move to this side of the border to operate if they really wanted something or someone.
“We follow the Mexican newspapers and we're always trying to figure out what's going on and what impact it might have here,” he said.
Mexico has one of the world's highest kidnapping rates, according to the anti-violence group IKV Pax Christi. Kidnappings are up 9 percent this year, averaging 65 per month nationwide, according to the Attorney General's Office, which blames drug cartels, cops, former cops and informants who point out potentially lucrative victims.
The recent kidnapping and killing of the 14-year-old son of a wealthy businessman in Mexico City created a firestorm after a police detective was implicated. Mass street protests are planned in several cities today, including Tijuana.
The administration of President Felipe Calderón quickly pledged to develop an anti-kidnapping strategy within six months.
Mexican authorities say there have been 22 kidnappings this year in Tijuana but the number is believed to be much higher. Many residents don't report kidnappings to police. An association of relatives of kidnap victims, called Esperanza, which means “hope,” puts the number at 200.
In the middle-class Tijuana neighborhood of Altabrisa, just a few yards from the Otay Mesa border crossing, the homeowners association posted a sign at the entrance that reads: “We demand zero kidnappings – zero violence.”
One neighbor said he knew of at least four families who had moved to San Diego since January, and dozens of homes are for sale or rent in the complex of 600 homes.
A small-business owner from the neighborhood, who declined to give his name, said he was afraid his family might be a target of kidnappers. He said he encouraged his two grown sons to sell their homes and move to Chula Vista, where they now rent.
He plans to do the same once he sells his home and his money-exchange business.
The large number of houses left behind in wealthy neighborhoods such as Chapultepec or Lomas de Agua Caliente has contributed to the housing crisis in Tijuana for middle-and high-income neighborhoods.
“We are seeing houses that have been for sale for a year, and more keep coming on to the market," said Jesus Silva, local chapter president of National Association of Mexican Real Estate agents.
He attributes the exodus to kidnappings and violence.
“We hope that after this crime wave passes, most people will come back. But it's complicated,” Silva said. “Is someone going to come out and say, 'OK, we've won this war, everybody come back, it's over.' I hope it happens, and soon. It doesn't look good.”
Some will probably never go back. Others, like the lawyer who survived a kidnapping attempt, are determined to move back after the situation is under control.
“My wife is very happy right now and I know it's going to be hard to ask her to move back, but I will try.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. |
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