Soldiers and federal police poured into the violent border city of Tijuana on Wednesday, manning checkpoints and inspecting local police stations as part of President Felipe Calderon's latest offensive against powerful drug gangs.
Backed by helicopters, planes and boats, the force descending on the city across the border from San Diego, California will eventually consist of 3,300 troops, Mexico's government has said. It was not clear exactly how many had entered Tijuana by Wednesday night.
Soldiers went into at least two local police stations and checked the documents and weapons of hundreds of officers.
PHOTO: AP
Federal investigators allege there is a corrupt network of police in the city supporting traffickers who smuggle tonnes of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana over the busy border crossing into the US. There were no immediate reports of arrests.
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon has welcomed the troops but some residents complained about the military checkpoints in the city.
"It's good that they do these operations but this seems a bit over the top," said Raul Gonzales after soldiers ordered him out of his car and searched him from head to toe on Wednesday. "I'm just going out with my family."
Dubbed "Operation Tijuana," the mobilization is the second major military offensive against drug gangs by Calderon, who took office on Dec. 1 promising to crack down on organized crime.
Last month, he sent 7,000 troops to his native state of Michoacan in western Mexico, which has been plagued by execution-style killings and beheadings as rival gangs fight over marijuana plantations and smuggling routes.
Calderon made his first visit to these troops at a base in the Michoacan city of Apatzingan on Wednesday, donning a green army cap and jacket for a breakfast with 200 agents.
"This is not an easy task nor will it be fast," Calderon said. "It will take a long time, imply using enormous resources and even unfortunately the loss of human lives."
But, he added, "if we continue working as we have been until now, our cities and our land will not remain in the hands of criminals."
Drug gangs were blamed for more than 2,000 murders nationwide last year and have left a particularly bloody trail in Michoacan and Tijuana, where more than 300 people were slain last year.
The gangs have taken to decapitating their victims and leaving their heads in front of government buildings, dumping them on public beaches and even rolling them onto a nightclub dance floor.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS