One
place where they still occur is in the huge concrete lined flood
control channel which splits Tijuana into two pieces. Miscreants
will make some effort to escape the Tijuana authorities and head
for the border.
These individuals
will even drive their cars at high speed right up the middle of
the flood control channel with the authorities in hot pursuit.
The
U.S. Border Patrol placed concrete barriers across the flood control
channel right along the yellow line which demarcates the border
to stop these northward bound adventures.
Tijuana
consists of a paved core which is surrounded by barren barrios.
The murder rate in Tijuana is certainly not more than about 500
per year (San Diego, California has a murder rate of less than
100 per year). Of course, when is a body count an actual body
count? This is the number of people discovered on the street,
in cars, in houses, or mysteriously plopped at Tijuana’s
city dump within a dozen miles or so of city center. The 500 does
not include the vast numbers of “others” who find
their way into shallow graves scattered across the 10,000 square
miles of desert sands from Tijuana to the Sea of Cortez.
For example, six people were dragged from a house in the Colonia
of Guaycura and their bodies were later found scattered in isolated
areas near Tecate and Ensenada. In the Colonia of El Sauzal, 19
people were ripped from their beds and then lined up and machine
gunned.
The
city of Tijuana actually has a murder count nearly equal to that
of all Western Europe combined. The recent political situation
in Iraq averages 560 deceased Americans per year which is about
Tijuana's score.
There
do seem to be certain issues with the Tijuana Police and all have
been disarmed. Mexico has moved Federal Troops into the city and
all 2,300 Tijuana Police Department weapons are being forensically
examined to attach "dead body" with "police weapon."
Unlike
Nuevo Laredo, Mexican Army tanks have not as yet encircled the
town.
In
Tijuana there are, on average, ten mysterious events each year
where policemen have somehow ended their lives. This tragic situation
includes the unfortunate end of Federico Benitez Lopez, the Tijuana
Chief of Police. It is only a rumor but some speculate that the
approximately 54 bullet holes in his body were simply an accidental
discharge of his personal revolver when his car was callously
bumped at a stop light.
