Thread: Tijuana Awash in Wave of Violent Crime

Originally Posted by Brian503a

Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

Brian503a
about the only difference between mexico and Iraq is they have not started using road side bombs in mexico yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually starts to happen since many Mexicans have sympathies toward groups like the Palistinians in the middle east, and even think of themselves as North American versions.

You are so right. They have shown their true colors during the past few weeks.

More on the violence in Mexico. I like to tell whoever wrote this article that the violence already is on are side of the border also.


link

Wave Of Mexican Violence Spilling Into San Diego?
Officials Shocked By Escalating Violence In Mexico

POSTED: 4:47 pm PDT June 1, 2005
UPDATED: 5:56 pm PDT June 1, 2005

SAN DIEGO -- The murder rate in Tijuana, Mexico, is staggering -- about 185 homicides have already been committed this year. According to 10News, most of those murders are drug-related.

Tijuana is on pace to record more than 450 homicides -- about 100 more than last year.

Even the FBI is surprised with the escalating violence south of the border.

Tijuana used to belong to the Arellano-Felix drug cartel, but now others are willing to kill for control of the drug trade.

After moving their operations to the east to places such as Texas, drug cartels have realized Tijuana is too good to pass up, according to 10News.

"We're starting to see a shift of activity coming back to this region, which is unfortunate for us. (It is) bringing a new level of violence," said Michael Unzueta of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement don't deal with the bodies, but the drugs that are streaming across the border.

"We're seeing more loads at ports of entry. (We've) seen more hard narcotics and are starting to see a greater number of loads of cocaine," Unzueta said.

Some worry that all the violence rocking Mexico could make its way north of the border into San Diego.

"Certainly the possibility is always there for spill over," Unzueta said.

Police in Mexico say they're doing the best they can to stop the murders. They pointed out that most of the violence doesn't happen to law-abiding citizens or Americans in Mexico.

Baja's chief homicide investigator said of all the people murdered, 90 percent have criminal records and ties to drug traffickers.

And you know the sad part.

I actually have relatives who live in Tijuana and every once in a while, either me or my parents go there.

Originally Posted by HandGrip

And you know the sad part.

I actually have relatives who live in Tijuana and every once in a while, either me or my parents go there.

Have they ever said anything about the mayor of Tijuana? I did some research this evening about him and could not believe how corrupt he is. I think he is a big part of the problem with the city. He was on our local news yesterday morning talking about the recent crime sprees. Here is a little biography I found on him below. On the news broadcast they also commented that he has 19 children!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Hank_Rhon

Jorge Hank Rhon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jorge Hank Rhon is Mexican billionaire businessman, the owner of Mexico's largest and most important sports betting company, Caliente. He is the son of former Mexico City mayor Carlos Hank González.

Employees of his were found guilty of the murder of one editor at the newsweekly Zeta (http://www.zetatijuana.com/) and are widely suspected in the murder of another. His family was publicly linked to drug trafficking by the U.S. government raw intelligence "White Tiger (http://www.narconews.com/Issue25/article29.html) Report", as well as a number of political corruption related charges in Mexico.

He won the Tijuana mayoral race of 2004, beating out PAN candidate Jorge Ramos and thus ending 12 years of allegedly corrupt PAN government in Tijuana.

The proud owner of a large, private zoo, during the mayoral race of 2004, he made a controversial remark that his favorite animal was "woman". He later apologized for the remark.

The first 100 days of his mayorship were plagued by record crime, asassinations, and other problems that during his campaign he promised to fix.

On March 28, 2005 the new and modern Bus Route 1-A, that since the last administration has been in a sort of bureaucratical limbo, was officially aproved and is scheduled to start service in late September.

Here is an interesting article I found on Mayor Rhon before he took office. Doesn't appear he fulfilled any of his promises almost a year later.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... 8hank.html

Tijuana mayor-elect plans his first moves

Hank's performance to be closely watched

By Sandra Dibble
STAFF WRITER

August 8, 2004

TIJUANA – The tigers paced behind bars inside Jorge Hank Rhon's private zoo. His 400 dogs were nowhere to be seen. A lone canary chirped in a birdcage as Tijuana's next mayor contemplated the daunting tasks to come.

The candidate for Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, who promised to stamp out crime, pave streets and give impoverished residents title to their land is now mayor-elect. Starting Dec. 1, Hank will have three years to resolve the problems of one of Mexico's fastest-growing and most complex cities.

"There will be just one law, for everyone, and we'll punish anyone who doesn't comply," said Hank, 48, inside his office at the Agua Caliente Racetrack one morning last week.

Hank, a populist candidate who campaigned on a law-and-order platform, won the election by 4,802 votes – 139,230 for the PRI versus 134,428 for the National Action Party, or PAN – and ended 15 years of dominance at City Hall by the PAN. Official results released yesterday by Baja California's State Electoral Institute confirmed the narrow victory that Hank claimed late last Sunday.

His performance at City Hall will be watched closely as Mexico prepares for the 2006 presidential elections, and as his party campaigns to regain the presidency it lost in 2000 to Vicente Fox of the PAN. Hank could face some politically difficult positions, as he will have to work with PAN administrations at both the federal and state levels.

Despite his well-financed campaign that made its way to every corner of the city, many doubted Hank could win. Queries about his past dogged the candidate – from the killing of a journalist, to smuggling endangered animal skins, to U.S. allegations of money laundering, all of which he has repeatedly denied.

But in the days that have followed his triumph, the questions have been changing: How will he govern? Whom will he appoint? How will he fulfill his promises? How will he build relations with the governor of Baja California, and with his counterparts north of the border?

Hank estimates his wealth at $500 million, much of it in gambling-related businesses, including the Tijuana racetrack, where horses have not raced since 1989 – the result, Hank says, of a dramatic drop in the supply of thoroughbreds because of a U.S. tax on horse breeding. Hank's track is used for dog races.

Hank says he has 7,000 employees in his various enterprises, including off-track betting businesses in Mexico, other parts of Latin America, and Europe. But he has never run a city, much less one of 1.5 million residents, one of the fastest-growing in Mexico, a city with few resources to fight daunting problems, from lack of infrastructure to crime to drug consumption.

How will he close drug houses? "Police know where they are. We'll close them and arrest people who are selling them, try them, and send them to jail."

Could there be violence? "Probably, but it's the decision that has to be taken," Hank said. "Drugs are a cancer that is decimating this city. It's destroying our youth, our children. We have to shut them down, no matter what the cost."

Such promises may win over voters desperate for a solution to the city's high crime rates, but "he's quickly going to confront a series of problems that the city faces on a daily basis," said Victor Alejandro Espinosa, a political analyst at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a think tank outside Tijuana.

"Public administration is very complicated in Mexico. You have to build relationships with the state and the federal governments. You need to lobby and negotiate. It's not the same as being on the campaign trail."

Jesús Manuel Sández, head of Tijuana's Business Coordinating Council, an umbrella group that includes the Chamber of Commerce, said his group is eager to work with Hank.

"If he complies with even 50 percent of what he's promised, he'll be playing an important role," Sández said. "We will be the first to complain if he doesn't come through."

Sández said the group is encouraged by Hank's promises to support a light-rail system for the city, a politically tricky proj-ect because of its effect on a vast network of taxi drivers, many of them allied with the PRI.

Many believe that Hank has his eye on higher political office and that will prompt him to try his hardest at being mayor.

"The PRI wants to recoup the governorship," said Jorge D'Garay, a political consultant and director of public relations at City Hall during the mid-1990s. "If you want to do that, you have to perform well."

Hank has vowed that corruption will have no place in his administration, but he raised fears of just that last week when he told a Tijuana radio station that he'd like to appoint a Mexico City police chief similar to Arturo "El Negro" Durazo, who led a force from 1976 to 1982 known for brutality and corruption.

Durazo was arrested in 1984 by FBI agents in Puerto Rico after an international manhunt and served eight years of a 16-year prison term on racketeering and weapons charges.

Durazo "imposed peace on the city," Hank said. "He applied the law. Anyone who committed a crime was punished. They've satanized him."

Hank said he has learned to shrug off criticism directed at himself and his late father, Carlos Hank González, a PRI politician who made a fortune while serving in a series of public posts.

"The people in Tijuana knew who they were electing," said José Larroque, a Tijuana attorney and member of the San Diego Dialogue, a binational civic group that promotes cross-border ties. "You have to give the guy a chance to see how he performs."

Hank said he frequently crosses to San Diego, and he hopes to build relations with his counterparts north of the border. He does not have a fast-pass "Sentri" card that requires special security clearance from the U.S. government, he said. He has not applied.

Asked how the Hank win would affect traditionally close ties between San Diego and Tijuana police, San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne replied, "We'll just have to play this one out."

Police departments across the United States with cases in Mexico often turn to San Diego's two Mexico liaison officers to help expedite matters, Lansdowne said.

"We have plans to meet with the mayor and whoever the mayor selects as the new chief of police," he said. "We'd like to see this continue."

Even if it doesn't, however, Lansdowne said his department should still be able to handle cases across the border.

"We have enough friends now in Tijuana that I think we can continue to have great relationships," he said.

National City Mayor Nick Inzunza, for one, said he looks forward to close ties with Hank.

"Tijuana needs a mayor like Jorge Hank Rhon, somebody that can get things done," Inzunza said. "It's refreshing to hear a mayor of Tijuana whose focus is not on luring business. Instead, it's 'What can we do to help the poor people of Tijuana?' "

A 57-year-old American woman was killed this month in Rosarito Beach in what appears to be an isolated incident, said Lorena Blanco, a consulate spokeswoman. Americans, according to the travel advisory, are urged to be aware of the "unsettled public security situation."

Why would any American even go to that Hellhole? There are ten thousand better places to visit in this country where you don't have to worry about getting shot, stabbed or kidnapped.

Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

Brian503a
about the only difference between mexico and Iraq is they have not started using road side bombs in mexico yet.

Dont worry. They will be here soon. Look at all the otm's that have snuck over the border. I wouldn't be surprised if car and human bombs didn't go off this summer.