Hundreds of Mexican military troops were on Saturday flown into Tijuana to beef up street patrols after armed gangs hijacked and burned at least a dozen vehicles in the border city, the latest in a wave of attacks hitting civilians across the country.
The US consulate in Tijuana instructed its employees “to shelter in place until further notice” around midnight on Friday because of the violence, as the Tijuana hijackings snarled traffic across the city and temporarily blocked access to one of the world’s busiest border crossings.
About 350 national guard troops were flown in to reinforce thousands of federal troops already in the state of Baja California, Reforma reported on its Web site.
Photo: Reuters
It was the third time this week Mexican cities have seen widespread arson and shootings by drug cartels. The gangs appear to be targeting stores, vehicles and bystanders in response to disputes or attempts to capture gang members.
Baja California officials said 24 vehicles had been hijacked and burned at different points throughout the state: 15 in Tijuana, three in Rosarito and two each in Mexicali, Ensenada, and Tecate. Tijuana is home to the San Ysidro-El Chaparral ports of entry, the busiest US border crossing.
Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero blamed it on disputes between drug gangs and asked them to stop the violence.
“Today we are saying to the organized crime groups that are committing these crimes, that Tijuana is going to remain open and take care of its citizens,” Caballero said in a video statement. “And we also ask them to settle their debts with those who didn’t pay what they owe, not with families and hard-working citizens.”
On Saturday, few people ventured out on the streets in Tijuana and many of the bus and passenger van services stopped running, leaving some residents unable to get where they were going.
“Let them fight it out among themselves, but leave us alone,” said Tijuana resident Blanca Estela Fuentes, as she looked for some means of public transport. “So they kill each other, they can do whatever they want, but the public, why are we to blame?”
Later on Saturday, Caballero said that some bus and van routes had resumed service.
The Mexican Secretariat of Public Safety said that one person was wounded in the violence and that federal, state and local forces had detained 17 suspects, including seven in Tijuana, and four each in Rosarito and Mexicali.
It said that some of the suspects had been identified as members of the Jalisco cartel, the group blamed for burning stores and shooting people earlier this week in the states of Jalisco and Guanajuato.
The area around Tijuana, which borders southern California, is a lucrative drug-trafficking corridor long dominated by the Arellano Felix cartel, but which has since become a battle ground between various gangs, including the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels.
The mayor’s comment about Tijuana remaining open was an apparent reference to the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, where some classes and public events were canceled after similar violence on Thursday.
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