Tijuana has the most active murder investigations in all of Mexico, professor says
SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Tijuana has the most active murder investigations in all of Mexico, and some residents and local advocates fear there is no end in sight to the violence.
Víctor Clark Alfaro, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights in Tijuana and professor at San Diego State University, says through the end of March, the Baja California’s Attorney General’s Office was investigating 415 homicides in Tijuana.
By comparison, Ciudad Juárez, just south of El Paso, Texas, had 219, and León, Guanajuato had 152.
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Clark Alfaro says younger generations don’t know a city without constant killings and crime, and they consider the ongoing wave of violence in Tijuana to be the norm.
“This has been going on for 25 years,” he said. “We’ve reached the point of no return with the violence in Tijuana, it’s endemic in our region — something that began in the 90s and has been evolving ever since.”
Clark Alfaro says city and state police, along with Mexico’s National Guard, have tried to curb the violence, and while they’ve had some success at times, the bloodshed remains and is now “ingrained in the city.”
“Two groups within organized crime are in dispute for the region generating violence,” Clark Alfaro said. “On average, six murders take place daily, all revenge killings for the most part.”
He believes things are changing for the worse with the evolution of new drugs such as fentanyl being manufactured and distributed.
“There’s no glimpse of a solution in the short term, and it shows signs of getting worse and more intense.”
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José Cañada García, head of a citizens’ security group, agrees with Clark Alfaro, but he blames Baja’s Attorney General’s Office for “not investigating homicides thoroughly.”
“There aren’t any real investigations, and as long as they don’t happen and there’s no coordination between the three branches of government, crime and murders will continue to increase,” he said.
Cañada García believes crime syndicates are taking advantage of the lack of teamwork among government law enforcement agencies, especially on the federal level.
“As long as the federal government doesn’t go after organized crime, this won’t change.”
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