Tijuana, Part 6

There are more than 3,000 hookers in Tijuana and about 500 of them are streetwalkers.

To the west side of Tijuana is the commercial district and westerly from there are many ornate hillside residences. Many of these residences are filled with large families with familial links or even what we might call tenticular appendages reaching thousands of miles to the south to Columbia and even ten thousand miles to the east to Afghanistan. While they consider themselves simple families, we in America have embraced a different, if mean spirited, term for them: The Cartel.

The “ratta tat tat” sporadically followed by the subtle counterpoint of “Brrappp ding ding clank” one hears on warm summer evenings in Tijuana is only the distant echoes of automatic weapons fire as familial entanglements and disagreements are settled within … The Cartel.

Tijuana's entire police force has been disarmed by the "federal authorities" and troops now provide a modicum of peace in this border town. If 2,300 city policemen without guns seems a risk, the 3,000 troops with .30 caliber assault rifles more than make up for it.

Tijuana’s Arellano Felix Organization — The Cartel — still supplies about a third of all cocaine sold on America’s streets and huge portions of the marijuana. Because these refined agricultural products are so very important to Mexico’s economy, odd situations occur which are curious and yet fascinating and something you might well experience first hand during your visit to Tijuana.