Crime and Safety
Travel alerts and latest news on crime along with valubale tips to avoid becoming a crime victim in Baja Mexico
Organizer:
- Organized by
-
-
Tijuana is LOCKED DOWN – Border on Cartel's Curfew
-
Tijuana is LOCKED DOWN – Border on Cartel's Curfew
Blockades with cars, trucks and busses burning across the city and the U.S. Consulate recommended that Americans shelter in place in the region
By Alexandra Mendoza, Kate Morrissey | San Diego Union Tribune
Aug. 13, 2022 12:56 AM PTMany Tijuana residents took shelter Friday evening after burning vehicles appeared throughout the city in what is suspected to be a coordinated act of organized crime.
At least 19 vehicles, including both privately-owned and public transport, were ignited in different cities in the state of Baja California, according to local authorities, and in some cases blocked the roadways.
Similar vehicle fires were used earlier in the week in the states of Jalisco and Guanajuato to send a cartel message to the Mexican government after the detention of several cartel members in an operation by the Mexican military. It is not clear whether the acts of violence in Tijuana are related.
The U.S. Consul General in Tijuana advised Americans to seek shelter. Meanwhile, local Mexican officials worked to reassure Tijuanenses that government forces would protect them.
“In light of the recorded facts this Friday, I want to express to you that my government is acting to protect the population and handle each and all of the violent events that have arisen,” wrote Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila in Spanish on a social media post.
Hours before, Ávila had reported that some people were in custody related to the violent acts.
“I want to tell you that I will not hold back forces, or resources, to take care of citizens’ security and supervise the actions that recover our peace,” her message concluded.
An amplified presence of local police and National Guard were visible on the streets of Tijuana Friday night.
Outside the Estadio Caliente, the soccer stadium where local team Xolos was finishing up a match, fire trucks and National Guard rushed to extinguish a blaze. As news spread of the concern for potentially more violence overnight, many fans chose to leave the game early.
Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero said that she would maintain a permanent security operation after the day’s events.
In a video published on social media, she signaled that she was working in coordination with state and federal authorities, and that she would deploy “the 3,000 troops of the National Guard, 2,000 police and the whole government body to protect Tijuana if it’s necessary.”
In the message, in which she appeared accompanied by her security secretary, Fernando Sánchez, she attributed the events to organized crime and asked citizens to remain calm.
The U.S. Consul general sent out a message saying that it’s aware of the reports of fires, blockades and police activity in different cities in the state.
“U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place until further notice,” its message on Twitter says.
County Supervisor Nora Vargas retweeted the consulate’s message and encouraged binational residents to follow the recommendations of government authorities and “avoid unnecessary travel to allow authorities to do their work and maintain safety.”
Some stores, among them the supermarket chain Calimax, closed early as a precautionary measure.
“Our branches are already closed, and we ask you again not to leave your homes and to shelter in place,” its Facebook account published.
The Autonomous University of Baja California announced that classes would be cancelled on Saturday. The Tijuana Cultural Center also said that it would be suspending activities Saturday.
-
56 Replies
-
You are welcome to discuss the topic here but for the latest news and events regarding the situation at the border I strongly recommend you go to our Talk Baja group on Facebook:
-
Thanks and I am!
-
-
How awful, I will be keeping everyone in harm’s way there in my prayers. Stay safe and stay inside!
-
The violence has spread along the border to Tecate and Mexicali and down to Ensenada.
-
Yes it has spread all along the border and down to Ensenada, hopefully it doesn’t spread farther.
-
San Quintin is quiet?
-
All quiet right now. The only significant event I know of in the last 24 hours was a guy driving over a light post south of town. And he was drunk.
-
I hope that peace continues.
-
-
-
-
-
Any idea how long this might last? I know that it’s a hard thing to predict but are the authorities giving any clue as to how long before they think they can take control of what’s happening?
-
The governor says she if gaining control with many arrests made but personally I don’t think they have a clue yet with rumors of a second wave of violence to come, I think most in the area are preparing for this to last for at least a couple of more days. I hope and pray I am wrong on that…
-
Thanks. Friends were planning on driving down tomorrow and asked me what I thought.
-
Tell your friends it is not safe right now.
-
-
-
-
This make me so angry and I blame the president Lopez Obrador for his stupid policy of abrazos no balazos. All he did was send a signal to the cartels that he was afraid to fight and they take advantage of that sign of weakness.
-
Yes, we have a ignorant fool in charge of our country and we are witnessing the results of his stupidity in Tijuana today.
-
That was a very stupid thing to say to the very same people who are today bringing terror to your streets
-
-
I am worried and embarrassed for my city and country today. Please don’t come now, it is simply not safe. My family and all my friends we are all staying locked in home.
-
Thank you for sharing your point of view Carlos. I have family in Tijuana and they are telling us the very same thing.
-
Are they Americans?
-
Well, I consider everyone on both sides of the border as “Americans” but assuming you meant U.S. citizens, yes one of them is but all are members of my extended Mexican family on my wife Cristinas side. We have been in close contact with them throughout.
-
I hope they remain safe.
-
-
-
-
-
I just got a message from a friend in Playas de Tijuana who says it’s all overplayed, it’s just another Saturday in Mexico?
-
I find that quite strange as I spoke earlier with a friend who lives in Playas de Tijuana and he said over half of the local businesses around his home are closed today and the traffic is very light there.
-
-
Still not sure?
Many of you here have messaged me this afternoon, privately thanking me for my post with the advice not to make plans to cross the border this weekend.
A few of you however, took issue with my post and chastised me in your messages claiming that I was “feeding into the histeria” and what you viewed as a “gross exaggeration of the cartel’s threat.”
You are all (or should be) adults here and fully able to make your own decisions as to how serious the risk truly is. I am not going to argue with any of you anymore but I will close with this…
If the decision by such a significant percentage of the general population of people living along the border here in Baja to stay at home and off the streets this weekend doesn’t convince you, take into consideration what is going on with Uber today in Tijuana.
Tijuana’s Uber drivers are ordinary people like you and me who know the streets of this border city better than anyone. They make their living driving on the streets of Tijuana everyday and weekends are traditionally some of their most lucrative opportunities to do so.
A significant percentage of Uber drivers today in Tijuana are staying home and those that are left are charging a major premium to do so, with fares of well over 1,000 pesos being quoted for a fare to certain areas that traditionally cost closer to 150 pesos at most.
Rather than listen to armchair quarterbacks or tourism related business owners upset over cancellations, I prefer to pay much more attention to people who actually have some skin in the game.
The choice is yours, good luck…
-
Thanks for sharing that @BajaGringo
-
That is really good information and something to be aware of when these kinds of things are going down along the border. Thanks.
-
OMG that’s crazy! I love Tijuana but depend on Uber when I’m there and I don’t know what I would do if something like that happened.
-
-
I was just on Facebook and cannot believe the idiotic comments made by a few who criticize you Ron for posting this warning. What is wrong with people, were they dropped on their heads when they were babies, or what?
-
Now you understand why I decided to stop posting on FB. Half the people there are idiots, and most of the rest are divided between people pushing a political agenda, their business interests or trolls with only a small percentage left having more than 2 or 3 functioning brain cells. Ron has much more patience than I do.
-
Idiots. How many of them mentioned the gun violence in Chicago, as if that had any relevance?
-
What fools. How many of them mentioned the gun violence in Chicago, as if that had any relevance?
-
What a bunch of pendejos with too much testosterone.
-
-
An eerily quiet Saturday night…
Last night appears to have passed with only a very minor number of reported incidents in comparison with the events of recent days as the streets of the cities and towns along the southern side of the border were heavily patrolled by a combination of local and state police, national guard and military patrols.
A good friend who is a reporter for one of the Tijuana newspapers messaged me this morning, sharing that it was an “eerily quiet Saturday night in Tijuana…”
Let’s pray that the authorities are able to keep that peace…
-
Encouraging news, thanks for sharing that.
-
No news is good news at times like this
-
-
Thank you for that update and hopefully things get back to normal soon
-
Makes me wonder what negotiations may have been going on behind the scenes and what, if anything, the cartel got out of this?
-
All of our family in Tijuana and Tecate took this seriously and stayed at home.
Most people in Mexico today believe the local “malandros de la colonia” much more than anything on the news or what the government tells them about such things. Every colonia has their local “malandros” or small time criminals. They are usually the sons of local families on the block, the black sheeps of their family. They are small-time thieves, addicted to drugs or alcohol and don’t belong to any specific cartel but are like free agents. Cartel operatives will hire them from time to time for jobs like keeping an eye out for someone, to take a message to someone, to accompany them on an operation when they need more people, etc. In exchange they get some drugs, some money and something very important they have learned how to commercialize – intel on things going down in the area. In turn they share that intel with other families and friends in their colonia which is why the colonias put up with them.
It’s a weird relationship but any colonia in Tijuana today that doesn’t have at least 1 or 2 malandro types living close by as loyal informants of what is going on will feel exposed and vulnerable. Especially in lower economic class colonias where the police don’t normally patrol at night.
It’s probably hard to comprehend for many of you up here in the states where things are much more black and white, you befriend the good guys and stay far away from the bad guys. In Mexico we have learned we can’t trust the government to know what is going on and to keep us safe so we use these local informants from families we know and who we watched grow up to keep us informed as to what is really going on. We depend on them just like the cops use them for information. Sometimes they will lie to the cops but they always tell the families on their block what is really going on.
My sister for example has a godson who dropped out from school and was given 3 years in prison for stealing cars but since he got out just smokes weed and sells what he doesn’t smoke. He stops by her house once in awhile and tells her what and who to watch out for. In return she makes him tacos for lunch and gives him some burritos and a little money to take with him.
The informants in the colonias of Tijuana last week were telling everybody they better take this threat seriously. We were planning on driving down to Tijuana for my brother-in-laws birthday party on Friday but my sister warned us not to go.
She gave me that warning days before the first car was set on fire. Some of you may think the CNGJ just used the informants to scare people but that would not be smart. They need to protect their reputation of making credible threats or nobody believe them next time.
We believe either the government negotiate with them to give them something they wanted and just don’t tell anybody about it or may have captured and released a local cartel boss in exchange for no more violence.
You just don’t know in Mexico but they rarely tell you what is really going on but do watch for and pay attention when you see the people of the colonias staying home. That’s a positive sign that something is happening and you should probably stay home too.
She called me this morning and said it’s safe again to cross now. I along with most people there trust their “malandro” intel sources 1000x more than anything I hear or read in the press or from the authorities, and you should pay attention too.
-
Great information. Would you mind if I share it on Talk Baja on Facebook?
-
Yes, of course
-
Thank you sir
-
-
-
That is very true Pete and from what I remember my dad telling us, it was that way too when he grew up as a kid in Mexico City and later in Guadalajara. He explained such relationships with these kinds of people was mutually beneficial and just being pragmatic for both sides to survive.
-
Yes but today there are more drugs, more guns and more violence.
-
-
That is exactly the way colonias down there worked where I grew up. The local malandros had a code not to steal from their own block and would keep us informed as to what was going on.
-
They may not steal from their own block but 3 or more blocks away is fair game. It’s not so much a “code” but for their own survival.
-
-
That is interesting – slightly troubling but valuable perspective to better understand not only this current situation but Mexico itself. I always hear people say down there they don’t trust in or believe the government but I always thought, who are they going to believe then? I guess now I know and it will probably alter my take on things a bit on future trips down.
Thank you sir!
-
Listen to the people who make your tacos to eat, pour you a beer and fill your truck with gasoline. They know exactly what is happening here and if you ask them they will tell you.
-
-
Wow, that’s very interesting to know. I knew these types of “weird” relationships happened sometimes but didn’t realize the practice was so wide spread across Mexico. It does help me to better understand the social framework in Mexico as I was having a hard time understanding how good people could down there could hang out with the bad guys sometimes? I have a close friend who was born in Tecate and I would see that sometimes when I hang out with him and his family and friends there. This explanation gives me a much better understanding of how colonias work and function down there – how people who didn’t even know how to read always knew exactly everything that was going on? This makes so much sense.
-
This is how Mexico works today.
-
-
What you posted is actually a dirty little secret that most Mexicans know but rarely talk about, maybe because in a way, we are little embarrassed to admit it is true. We had this same conversation at my university in a sociology lecture on Mexican society and one of the students mentioned this example when talking about our values as Latinos. The professor had a very difficult time to respond as it undermined some of his theories but everyone, including our professor, agreed this is the real situation in working class neighborhoods of my country today.
My response to the professor was that I acknowledge this happens but place the blame on our government who keeps us in the dark so much about what is really happening? We have no where else to go but to our local malandros to find out.
I agree with you – I believe that governor made a deal with the cartel to knock it off.
-
My wife and I traveled to Costa Rica a few times and it’s the same way there. This is part of our Latino culture, it’s not just a “Mexican thing”.
-
-
OMG
I can’t believe you just posted that but it’s true, I am ashamed to say, especially in the working class neighborhoods. I could never explain this to my gringa friends up here but we just don’t trust our government. Especially at times like this and so we rely on the local “problem kids” as my mother called them in our neighborhood to keep us informed of everything. They also could get you a gun for protection, watch your house when you are at the market and find out the person that stole your propane tank last night. It sounds awful but that is how it works.
I think the governor she made a deal with the cartel. They probably released some other prisoners they negotiated for. Something but they won’t tell us.
-
-
11:15AM PDT 14 Aug 2022
Order to Shelter in Place is No Longer in Effect
The U.S. Consulate General in Tijuana continues to closely monitor the security situation in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada, Tecate, and Mexicali. The August 12 instructions to U.S. government personnel to shelter in place are no longer in effect.
Received via email from the US State Department
-
This is good news
-
-
Hopefully this holds up. We have plans to go down next weekend so I will be keeping my fingers crossed. 🤞
-
Keeping Baja in my prayers 🙏🙏🙏
Log in to reply.