US Consulate officials in Tijuana told , #US #Consulate #employees #Tijuana #told Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
The Mexican border towns of Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito and Ensenada were hit by gang violence, including vehicles being set on fire and roadblocks.
The US Consulate in Tijuana his employees have been instructed “to take shelter until further notice” around midnight because of the violence.
It was the third time this week that Mexican cities have seen widespread arson and shootings by drug cartels. The gangs appear to target shops, vehicles and innocent bystanders in response to disputes or attempts to arrest gang members.
Members of security forces stand near a burned-out truck after it was set ablaze in Tijuana, Mexico, on Aug. 12, 2022, by unidentified persons.
JORGE DUENES / REUTERS
Tijuana officials said vehicles had been burned at about 10 points in the city, and Mayor Montserrat Caballero blamed disputes between drug gangs.
Caballero made a public call for “organized crime,” the term used in Mexico for drug cartels, to stem the growing trend of targeting innocent civilians.
“Today we say to the organized crime groups that commit these crimes that Tijuana will remain open and take care of its citizens, and we also ask them to settle their debts with those who have not paid what they owe. not with families and hard-working citizens,” Caballero said.
The extent of the violence was still unclear on Saturday. Late Friday, 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.”
The mayor’s comment about staying open was a clear reference to the border town of Ciudad Juarez, opposite El Paso, Texas, where some classes and public events were canceled after similar violence on Thursday.
Alleged gang members committed a shooting in Ciudad Juarez that killed nine people, including four radio station employees, after two inmates were killed in a fight between rival gangs at a local prison.
On Tuesday, armed drug cartels burned vehicles and businesses in the western states of Jalisco and Guanajuato in response to an attempt to arrest a high-ranking Jalisco cartel leader. considering to be “one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world”.
The leader of the cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho”, is one of the most wanted by Mexican and American authorities. There was no indication that Oseguera was present during Tuesday’s game.
Bordering Southern California, the Tijuana area is a lucrative drug trafficking corridor that was long dominated by the Arellano Felix cartel, but has since become a battleground between several gangs, including the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels.
On Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said of the violence in Ciudad Juarez: “They attacked the innocent civilian population as a form of revenge. It wasn’t just a clash between two groups, but it got to the point where they started shooting at civilians, innocent people. That is the most unfortunate thing in this case.”
The shooting killed four employees of the MegaRadio station broadcasting a live promotional event outside a pizzeria in Ciudad Juarez.
Such indiscriminate violence is not unprecedented in Mexico.
In June last year, a rival faction of the Gulf Cartel invaded the border town of Reynosa, killing 14 people whom the governor identified as “innocent civilians.” The military responded and killed four suspected gunmen.
And cartels in Mexico often hijack and burn vehicles to distract the police or prevent them from pursuing gunmen.