TIJUANA, Mexico –
The Mexican border cities of Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, and Ensenada were affected by gang violence that included burning vehicles and roadblocks.
The United States Consulate in Tijuana instructed its employees to “shelter in place until further notice” around midnight due to the violence.
It was the third time this week that Mexican cities have seen widespread arson and shooting by drug cartels. Gangs appear to target stores, vehicles, and innocent bystanders in response to disputes or attempts to capture gang members.
Officials from the state of Baja California said that a total of 24 vehicles had been seized and burned in different parts of the state: 15 in Tijuana, three in Rosarito and two in Mexicali, Ensenada and Tecate.
Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero blamed disputes between drug gangs and asked them to stop the violence.
Caballero publicly called for “organized crime,” the term used in Mexico for drug cartels, to stop the growing trend of attacking innocent civilians.
“Today we are telling the organized crime groups that are committing these crimes, that Tijuana is going to stay open and take care of its citizens,” Cabellero said in a video, “and we also ask them to settle their debts with those who did not pay what it owes, not with working families and citizens.”
The extent of the violence was still unclear on Saturday. On Friday night, the US Consulate General in Tijuana said in a statement that it “is aware of reports of multiple vehicle fires, roadblocks, and heavy police activity in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate. “.
On Saturday, few people ventured out onto the streets of Tijuana and many bus and passenger van services stopped operating, leaving some residents unable to get where they were going.
“Let them fight each other, but leave it to us,” said Tijuana resident Blanca Estela Fuentes, while looking for some form of public transportation. “So they kill each other, they can do what they want, but the public, why are we to blame?”
The federal department of public security said one person was injured in the violence and that federal, state and local forces had detained 17 suspects, including seven in Tijuana and four in Rosarito and Mexicali.
The mayor’s comment about Tijuana staying open was an apparent reference to the border city of Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas, where some classes and public events were canceled after similar violence Thursday.
Suspected gang members have opened fire in Ciudad Juárez, killing nine people, including four radio station employees, after a fight between rival gangs at a local prison left two inmates dead.
On Tuesday, drug cartel gunmen burned down vehicles and businesses in the western states of Jalisco and Guanajuato in response to an attempt to arrest a high-ranking leader of the Jalisco cartel.
Oxxo, a national convenience store chain owned by Femsa, the country’s largest bottling company, said 25 of its stores in Guanajuato, which borders Jalisco, home to the cartel of the same name, were burned in whole or in part on Tuesday.
The area around Tijuana, which borders Southern California, is a lucrative drug trafficking corridor long dominated by the Arellano Félix cartel, but has since become a battleground between various gangs, including the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels.
Speaking about the violence in Ciudad Juárez on Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said: “They attacked the civilian and innocent population as a kind of revenge. It was not just a confrontation between two groups, but it got to the point where they started shooting to civilians, to innocent people. That is the most unfortunate thing about this matter.”
Four employees of the MegaRadio station, who were broadcasting a promotional event live outside a pizzeria in Ciudad Juárez, died in the shooting.
Such random violence is unprecedented in Mexico.
In June of last year, a rival faction of the Gulf cartel entered the border city of Reynosa and murdered 14 people the governor identified as “innocent citizens.” The military responded and killed four suspected gunmen.
And cartels in Mexico often hijack vehicles and burn them to distract police or prevent them from going after gunmen.