Vicious drug turf war turns Mexican border town of Tijuana into a killing zone

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/3535833/Vicious-drug- ^ | 11/29/2008 | Philip Sherwell in Tijuana

[bruinbirdman]

Nearly 300 people have been killed since late-September – many mutilated, tortured and beheaded in gruesome terror tactics copied from Iraq's brutal conflict.

In the past week alone, there has been an attack in a nightclub popular with students that left five young people dead or dying; a hit squad stormed a private hospital and killed a patient who was being treated for gunshot wounds; and armed men opened fire on a car parked outside a popular US-owned discount warehouse, killing a woman and seriously injuring a man.

Mexico's drug war death tally of more than 4,000 this year – 685 in Tijuana – makes it one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and the extreme violence has intensified since the federal government launched a crackdown against the cartels.

On streets in the centre of Tijuana, where throngs of American visitors once stocked up on cheap goods and prescription drugs by day and revelled in the brash nightlife after dark, stores and bars now stand empty.

"Help the Mexican economy. Visit my shop!" pleaded one souvenir store manager last week as an armoured vehicle carrying heavily-armed troops trundled past him, down Avenida Revolucion.

But there were no shoppers for the T-shirts and spirit shot glasses bearing the legend, "One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor" – Tijuana's unofficial slogan for the young Americans who used to pour over the border to evade America's 21-year drinking age.

Nearby is the Caesar's restaurant where in 1924 an Italian immigrant, Caesar Cardini, devised a tangy dressing to accompany leftovers of lettuce and bread crusts and thereby invented the eponymous salad. But waiters stood around forlornly in the absence of customers.

After incidents like the Banana Loca killings, that is hardly surprising. Investigators suspect that the hitmen who calmly marched into the

[bruinbirdman]

U.S. murder capital is New Orleans at 209 year to date.

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html

Travel Alert

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
This information is current as of today, Sat Nov 29 2008 23:39:24 GMT-0800 (PST).

Mexico

October 14, 2008

[ruination]

Nearly 300 people have been killed since late-September

Around the same number of dead as in the Mumbai attacks, but about 5% of the media coverage.

[April Lexington]

By 2012 it will be time for the US to invade Mexico.

We need to demonstrate that we have reached the end of the line on Mexican border harrassment. We OWNED Mexico City in the 1850’s. We should have kept it. We can regain OUR lost territory quite easily.

Please inform His Excellency, the President of Mexico that if illegal border crossings, etc. don't stop immediately, we will invite him to our lovely new tourist resorts in the new 51st state of Baja California!

Time for some balls, folks. If we ever elect a REAL president...

[umgud]

It still amazes me that anybody would visit Mexico. BTW, I don’t visit New Orleans either, east LA, Compton, D.C., Detroit, etc. Life is too short to take those kind of risks.

[wastedyears]

Call up John Clark to send in Rainbow.

[wastedyears]

They issued a travel alert on my birthday this year. Good thing I don’t ever want to go down to Mexico. For anything

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

New Orleans as the murder capital of the US at 209 right now.

Gee whiz. Well, those smucks reelected Nagin. What did they expect, progress?

“Still stuck on stupid, eh, New Orleans?” When will you learn?

[wastedyears]

We need another Teddy Roosevelt.

[April Lexington]

I think it was Zachary Tyler who led the American troops into Mexico City in the 1850s and raised our flag. I think he became President.

Tippy Canoe and Tyler too! Or something like that...

[Deo volente]

I had jury duty in Compton just over a year ago. While enjoying lunch on the courthouse patio (it was a beautiful summer day, so I skipped the cafeteria), two gangsters got into a verbal dispute a few yards away from me. Luckily no guns were drawn. They were probably there as defendants or witnesses and probably left their firearms at home, since everyone has to go through a metal detector to get into the courthouse.

If I ever get assigned to Compton again, I think I’ll request a change of venue!

[April Lexington]

Actually, we need to carry the big stick and beat the cr*p out of them if they keep harassing us!

[Cindy]

A belated happy birthday, Wasted Years.

[Bookie1066]

And people laugh when I say I won’t go to Mexico in anything short of a B-52 with a couple of hundred megatons.

[wastedyears]

Thank you very much, Cindy.

:)

[Cindy]

My pleasure.

[JennysCool]

in gruesome terror tactics copied from Iraq's brutal conflict.

Gimme a freakin' break. They were doing this kind of stuff long before the Iraq invasion.

Any excuse to even peripherally Bush-bash, I guess.

[dr_lew]

I visited Tijuana on business back in the nineties. Me and the guy I was with went out to eat in our rental car, and he didn’t want to pay the restaurant parking fee, so he parked on the street. BOOM! Rear car door lock rifled, back seat pried open, laptop stolen.

That was then. This is now.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Mexico is a Third World latrine pit...and Tijuana is not the only Mexican city with serious murder problems

Instead of pandering Mexico with liberal free trade deals...its time to shut down the border, secure it, and repatriate those who entered the US illegally...before most US cities turn into drug cartel crime centers

[ThePythonicCow]

T-shirts ... bearing the legend "One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor"