Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, and Ensenada were affected by gang violence, which included the torching of automobiles and the blocking of roads.
Due to the violence, the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana told its staff about midnight to “shelter in place until further notice.”
It was the third time this week that drug gangs carried out extensive fires and killings in Mexican cities. As a result of arguments or efforts to apprehend gang members, the gangs seem to be targeting shops, automobiles, and innocent bystanders.
In Tijuana, unidentified persons set fire to a number of automobiles, as shown in this photograph.
On August 12, 2022, in Tijuana, Mexico, members of the security forces stand alongside a burned vehicle that was set on fire by unidentified persons.
JORGE DUENES / REUTERS
The mayor of Tijuana, Montserrat Caballero, attributed the vandalism on feuds between rival drug gangs. According to Tijuana authorities, roughly ten locations in the city were the sites of car arson.
Caballero made a public plea to “organized crime,” the phrase used in Mexico for drug cartels, to cease the trend of increasing attacks on innocent citizens.
“Today we are telling the organized criminal organizations that are perpetrating these atrocities that Tijuana will stay open and take care of its residents, and we are also asking them to settle their debts with those who haven’t paid what they owe, not with families and hard-working individuals,” added Caballero.
Saturday, the scope of the violence was yet unknown. The U.S. Consulate General in Tijuana issued a statement late on Friday night indicating that it “is aware of reports of several car fires, roadblocks, and substantial police action in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate.”
The mayor’s statement about keeping open was likely a reference to Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, where several courses and public activities were canceled on Thursday due to similar violence.
After a confrontation between rival gangs at a nearby jail left two prisoners dead, alleged gang members embarked on a shooting rampage in Ciudad Juarez, murdering nine individuals, including four radio station personnel.
Tuesday, drug cartel gunmen in the western states of Jalisco and Guanajuato burned vehicles and businesses in response to an attempt to arrest a high-ranking cartel leader of the Jalisco cartel, which the Department of Justice considers “one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations.”
The boss of the cartel, “El Mencho” Nemesio Oseguera, is among the most sought after by Mexican and American authorities. There was no evidence that Oseguera participated in Tuesday’s conflict.
The region bordering southern California around Tijuana is a rich drug-trafficking corridor that was once controlled by the Arellano Felix cartel but has since become a battleground for numerous gangs, such as the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels.
Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador commented on the violence in Ciudad Juárez “They assaulted the innocent civilian population as a form of retaliation. It was no longer merely a conflict between two parties when they started to kill civilians, innocent people. This is the most regrettable aspect of the situation.”
The gunshots resulted in the deaths of four MegaRadio personnel who were broadcasting a live promotional event outside a pizza shop in Ciudad Juárez.
Such arbitrary violence is not unprecedented in Mexico.
In June of last year, a rival branch of the Gulf cartel stormed the border city of Reynosa and murdered fourteen “innocent persons,” according to the city’s governor. The military retaliated by eliminating four alleged gunman.
And cartels in Mexico routinely kidnap and burn automobiles to divert police attention or prevent them from chasing gunmen.
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