Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to It Could Happen Here podcast about
Speaker 1: how the world is falling apart and sometimes about how
Speaker 1: people are putting it back together. What is today? It's me.
Speaker 1: I'm James, if you haven't worked that out yet, and
Speaker 1: I'm joined by screen. Say hi, Shrien, Hi, This is Sharian,
Speaker 1: Thank you, and I'm joined today by Vicente Calderon. He's
Speaker 1: a freelance journalist and the proprietor publisher of Tijuana Press
Speaker 1: dot com and he's covered the situation on the Grand
Speaker 1: Tijuana for a very long time. It's an excellent work
Speaker 1: and we've sent you what you people know about you.
Speaker 1: Nice to have you here. Thank you for the invitation,
Speaker 1: and in advance, I have to apologize for my English
Speaker 1: because this is a picture on the street and the
Speaker 1: Tijuana streets. It's excellent. Take a picture in the world
Speaker 1: kind of English. I'm a really originally a psychologist. I
Speaker 1: graduated from the School of psychology here, but I only
Speaker 1: worked for a couple of years and then I got
Speaker 1: stuck with journalism and I have been here for more
Speaker 1: than thirty years by now. I've been doing journalism from
Speaker 1: radio and then I moved to television, and then I
Speaker 1: went to the US to the work with Spanish language
Speaker 1: media twice in l A and then I came back
Speaker 1: and now I'm I'm doing online or or digital medium journalism,
Speaker 1: so to speak. So I'm a native here and again
Speaker 1: I was just supposed to be working this for a whilt,
Speaker 1: and still I got old enough to look like a psychologist.
Speaker 1: I just got God on the on the um addiction
Speaker 1: for journalism. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, Yeah, that's fascinating. All right.
Speaker 1: So the reason we to talk to you today is
Speaker 1: that we have seen a dramatic increase in violence in
Speaker 1: Tijuana since Friday. Right, we're recording this on the Tuesday,
Speaker 1: the sixteenth of August, so if people listening to it
Speaker 1: later don't know, but can you explain a little bit
Speaker 1: of what happened over the weekend in Tijuana and then
Speaker 1: across Mexico as well. Well. The thing began on Friday
Speaker 1: here in Mexicali and Tijuana. Megali is the capital of
Speaker 1: the state of Baja California, which is in the northwestern
Speaker 1: side the end of the US Mexico border. Um, so
Speaker 1: we began seeing people burning cars on the road. They
Speaker 1: were just ordering people from public transportation to get off
Speaker 1: the vehicle. Uh not in a very so to speak
Speaker 1: threatening matter kind of way, because they said, well, the
Speaker 1: problem is that we do, but you have to get
Speaker 1: off because otherwise because when we're going to burn this bus,
Speaker 1: and and nobody was actually no, it was really heard intentionally.
Speaker 1: We have just in Tijuana, we have about fifteen cases
Speaker 1: like that. Was mainly public transportations vehicles or some cases frogs,
Speaker 1: cargo trugs, or private vehicles. Most of it were public
Speaker 1: transportation vehicles, but people were working, and we're moving people
Speaker 1: from their homes to their works or to want to
Speaker 1: run one errand to on other side. So we began
Speaker 1: to see that this was in a very limited space
Speaker 1: of time happening not only in in Tijuana and in Mexicali,
Speaker 1: but also and five out of seven cities of Baja California.
Speaker 1: Nobody was claiming responsibility, but it looks like it was
Speaker 1: a coordinated effort in the basically the main cities of
Speaker 1: the state. We were very surprised because even though we
Speaker 1: have been dealing with drug violence for many decades, by
Speaker 1: now we were seen something who looks like the narco
Speaker 1: locales or blockades of the streets with drug traffickers, which
Speaker 1: are unfortunately very common in other cities like mon Terrey,
Speaker 1: for example, recently in Jalisco on the Pacific coasts in
Speaker 1: the central part of Mexico, but not here in Tijuana.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it sounds rare or strange for
Speaker 1: many people who know one of our his bad reputation,
Speaker 1: but now we never had cases like this before. That's
Speaker 1: why it was so surprising at the end. That was
Speaker 1: on Friday, and then immediately the local authorities began to
Speaker 1: display not only police from different different agencies or also
Speaker 1: soldiers who were coincidentally so to speak. We're here in
Speaker 1: big numbers and large numbers because there's a really h
Speaker 1: big push to put out more soldiers to help with
Speaker 1: public safety and Mexico. Not everybody is pleased with that
Speaker 1: because they say that Mexico is becoming a militarized country
Speaker 1: and it shouldn't be, because we have to We're trying
Speaker 1: to be a democracy, and in a democracy, is not
Speaker 1: the military or the army in charge of so much responsibility.
Speaker 1: But that's something that has been changing specifically with this
Speaker 1: new federal administration with the president, and so they sent
Speaker 1: out all of the soldiers and police officers and things
Speaker 1: basically diminished. But but that time in about less and
Speaker 1: in about less than two hours, people was already really scared. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the news spread and social media and people began worrying. Also,
Speaker 1: they began seeing that the public transportation was not enough
Speaker 1: because many were just came to a halt. I mean,
Speaker 1: and not just the public transportation, the officials of the city,
Speaker 1: but all the digital platform like uber, didy or other services.
Speaker 1: We're just worried that it might be the next one.
Speaker 1: So if I stay on the roads, am I going
Speaker 1: to be the target of these guys. We were not
Speaker 1: sure what was going on. We I guess everything one
Speaker 1: has like an idea that this was coming or linked
Speaker 1: to drug trafficking, but we were not sure at that time.
Speaker 1: So um in a couple of hours, every we didn't
Speaker 1: see more of these cases. But but at that time
Speaker 1: the city was really disrupted, so they began closing. I mean,
Speaker 1: the first thing who affected was public transportation. So people
Speaker 1: was stranded without with no ways to go to back home.
Speaker 1: And some schools were counseling classes and since the students
Speaker 1: were not able to find transportation, some offered places to
Speaker 1: stay to spend the night on the schools. Also that
Speaker 1: happened in in Um with other companies with the Makiladora plants,
Speaker 1: the manufacturing plants that are very popular. There's thousands of
Speaker 1: people here and in Tijuana who were there also in medically,
Speaker 1: but here also they in some cases have to open
Speaker 1: spaces so they can spend the night there. And we
Speaker 1: went out and was a lot of people stranded with
Speaker 1: no place, with no way to move from where they
Speaker 1: were when this begun. Yeah, I saw even like Kelly
Speaker 1: Max that the supermarket was classed right like they closed
Speaker 1: early and they announced that the next day they will
Speaker 1: hold their operations, that they will not open so they
Speaker 1: will not put in jeopardy to the safety of their workers.
Speaker 1: I mean, and they that during Friday, we didn't know
Speaker 1: what really what was going on, how severe was this happening.
Speaker 1: And just keep on mind that on Friday, Friday was
Speaker 1: the end of the of a week of their re
Speaker 1: violent scenes in different cities. It began in Guadalajara when
Speaker 1: they were the army was trying to capture a couple
Speaker 1: of drug lords or chief of cells from the uh Kalis,
Speaker 1: the Alisca New Generation cartel, which is the quote unquote
Speaker 1: newest and the strongest and most rapidly expand the drug
Speaker 1: organization in Mexico and the problems there, the dynamic was
Speaker 1: very very different. Again in Tijuana, even after the weekend,
Speaker 1: nobody was killed. Just one person in Mexicali got injured
Speaker 1: due to burns when while they were burning his truck,
Speaker 1: but apparently nothing major. So in the case of the
Speaker 1: World House a bit different. There were at gunpoint pulling
Speaker 1: people families out of their private vehicles and also bosses.
Speaker 1: And there there they were really actually located roads in
Speaker 1: an effort to disrupt the operation from the soldiers trying
Speaker 1: to capture their their bosses, and so the body's well
Speaker 1: we're way more strong sort of speak there. And after
Speaker 1: that it moved to one of another state where well
Speaker 1: there's high presence of Cartel Alisco new generation, and two
Speaker 1: days later we saw the worst case into that Quaries
Speaker 1: across from the Passo Texas that what is also another
Speaker 1: border town or border city should say that has been
Speaker 1: dealing with a lot of drug trafficking caves and and
Speaker 1: the things was terribly worse there. I mean they were
Speaker 1: there killing civilians randomly. They got to convene its stores
Speaker 1: like think about your seven eleven. The counter party is
Speaker 1: called also it's a very uh big change in uh.
Speaker 1: In one of these cases they just went in open
Speaker 1: fire to the cashier and they killed him. In other cases,
Speaker 1: a pregnant woman got killed and another one since they
Speaker 1: burned this these places. The one who there's two persons
Speaker 1: who died due to association because they got were cut up.
Speaker 1: They were not able to flee the place when this
Speaker 1: guys were showing up there. Many of these guys were
Speaker 1: also yelling or screaming, um, hooray for the Caliskon and
Speaker 1: Racian boss is called or Sea, I can't remember. He's
Speaker 1: not Mencho Mencho Mencho his nickname Mencho or Saghara is
Speaker 1: the leader of Calisco New Generation. And they were just
Speaker 1: praising him and just saying that there were people from
Speaker 1: Mencho and this they were just celebrating him as they
Speaker 1: were doing all this destruction and terrorize and people. So
Speaker 1: the worst part was in Sis. Sadly, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that this was not bad, but just we have to
Speaker 1: put it on perspective and fortunately here suladly for the
Speaker 1: people's Fortunately for the people here, nobody was injuring those
Speaker 1: activities on Friday, that diminished on Saturday, but we got
Speaker 1: more cases on Sunday night and mexically and we actually
Speaker 1: have four about four cases on the first and the
Speaker 1: last hours of Monday in Ensenada. We are still seeing
Speaker 1: if all of these have been related to the same
Speaker 1: effort due to organize crime or are just copycats because unfortunately,
Speaker 1: unfortunately that also is happening. Some of the cases in
Speaker 1: vehicality that happened on Sunday night were according to the
Speaker 1: chief of police there just copycasts. Were just stay gonna
Speaker 1: vents of the situation. I see, Well, that's that's interesting
Speaker 1: because until someone takes responsibility, even if they do, all
Speaker 1: the talks about like what cartels are one, that's just
Speaker 1: like in theory, right because there you don't know who's
Speaker 1: doing well, Am I understanding correctly? Well, yes, because it's
Speaker 1: it's not like when a terrorist organization claimed responsibility for
Speaker 1: a bombing um in the Middle East, for example. But
Speaker 1: here the thing is now the authorities are saying that
Speaker 1: it's well, was not just one, but different organizations they blame,
Speaker 1: and mainly on Jalisco New Generation because it's one of
Speaker 1: the along with this in a cartel more broadly extended
Speaker 1: in the state different states, and in this particular case
Speaker 1: they can link it. In the case of Jalisco and
Speaker 1: Guanajuato because they got information of these two bosses getting
Speaker 1: into a meeting and that's why they reacted. In In
Speaker 1: the case of Gas was different because everything began there
Speaker 1: without the few within inmates of the local jail, where
Speaker 1: there are clearly two factions from the the two main
Speaker 1: organisms stations who have been controlling turf in the parties. Here,
Speaker 1: we were not sure because unfortunately we have not just
Speaker 1: one or two. We have a three drug cartels or
Speaker 1: trafficing organization who has been acting or the linking uh
Speaker 1: for the several years right now, which is the relistan
Speaker 1: new generation, the one we talked about, which is the
Speaker 1: relatively newest organization. They sin Ala Cartel, who has been
Speaker 1: from the cradle of drug traffic in Mexico steps in Alloa,
Speaker 1: expanding the rocks that I'm sure they know. A chapel
Speaker 1: from the Narco series very popular now has been the
Speaker 1: public enemy number one according to Chicago for about eight
Speaker 1: years ago and now in a jail in New York.
Speaker 1: But there they're suns and their associates are still operating
Speaker 1: their trafficing organization along different routes in Mexico and Baha,
Speaker 1: California is one of those routes where they have a
Speaker 1: lot of strong presence. And also the Ariano Felix organization,
Speaker 1: the so called Tijuana cartel that is very popular, has
Speaker 1: its own UM series on Netflix as part of Narcos Mexico.
Speaker 1: This is the relevance of these kids who who grow
Speaker 1: up as as criminals at the border between Tijuana and
Speaker 1: San Diego. So we nobody has claimed responsibility UM as
Speaker 1: in other cases, but I think it's it's it's safe
Speaker 1: to know that these are the main suspects in the
Speaker 1: case of Tiquana. It's also the possibility that the field
Speaker 1: between these three organizations UM was an excuse for this
Speaker 1: level of violence. I mean, everybody is trying to be
Speaker 1: the strong girls force. So they challenged themselves not on
Speaker 1: this not only in the streets, but on social media.
Speaker 1: And this was also a way to challenge the authorities
Speaker 1: because even though the authorities reacted quickly kind of subdue
Speaker 1: more or frustrated more events, they were able to burn
Speaker 1: fifteen cars at the end of the week. And we're
Speaker 1: thirty six in different areas, in different cities. So that
Speaker 1: is not something that you can say not authorities. The
Speaker 1: military chief of the country saying, well with in Tijuana
Speaker 1: didn't attempted against so the civilians, well they did. They
Speaker 1: didn't kill them, but they burned their property and they
Speaker 1: disrupted the whole operation. So we are also seeing very
Speaker 1: carefully the way the local, the local and national authorities
Speaker 1: are reacting because we were lucky now, but this is
Speaker 1: probably will happen again if there's not a really strong
Speaker 1: risk on from an intelligent response from the authorities. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry if I'm sorry if this is silly, but
Speaker 1: is there any deeper meeting to it being specifically public transportation?
Speaker 1: Like it just seems so specific to like target how
Speaker 1: civilians are like transporting themselves. It's just like a show
Speaker 1: of power to be like we're going to make everyone
Speaker 1: freeze or there is there any deeper meaning to like
Speaker 1: what they're targeting, not that I understand so far. I
Speaker 1: mean for me right now is because as they did, uh,
Speaker 1: they were successful and bringing the city to a halt.
Speaker 1: I mean we went out and just think this was
Speaker 1: a Friday summer night in revolution who has seen a
Speaker 1: renaissance the last for the last ten years. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people coming from the U. S Side and
Speaker 1: from Mexico to enjoy the gastronomy, local the bars, the
Speaker 1: party scene, what's dead. The only people we were found
Speaker 1: we found there Friday night was UM workers that were
Speaker 1: not able to find an Uber or the uber was
Speaker 1: I talked to some of the Uber drivers that they did.
Speaker 1: The drivers to me it went from one to seven.
Speaker 1: I mean something will cause you ten dollars were costing
Speaker 1: the press was now seven seventy due to the high
Speaker 1: demand and poor offer. So no, I don't find another
Speaker 1: another explanations so far, so far with the information that
Speaker 1: we have until now, um that could explain. But they
Speaker 1: did reach a big impact with this relatively easy actions
Speaker 1: after all these coordinator attacks. Yeah, it's probably worth mentioning
Speaker 1: the context of in one of Goose months kids was
Speaker 1: arrested and I believe dates around then, and there was
Speaker 1: a huge, huge increase in violence immediately following that, right
Speaker 1: and eventually Amblo the president gave the order to release him.
Speaker 1: And oh that was yeah, there was My recent was
Speaker 1: a video one of the main sons in in something
Speaker 1: that we call the Kulia is the name of the city,
Speaker 1: is the capital of the status Sinaloa. As we said,
Speaker 1: I have family, My mother is from Sinaloa. And some
Speaker 1: people from Sinaloa get offended when we said that it's
Speaker 1: a cradle of drug trafficking in Mexico because most of
Speaker 1: the power, the law, the drug laws come from from
Speaker 1: from Sinaloa. But yeah, you're right, you're right. Uh, And
Speaker 1: that's something that has become a big recurrent topic when
Speaker 1: people criticize, especially the political opposition is the current president,
Speaker 1: because they said, this is the origin of this kind
Speaker 1: of demonstrations. So when when when the government wants to act. Now,
Speaker 1: the criminals know that an effort, a coordinated effort to
Speaker 1: get out on the streets and to show their muscle
Speaker 1: could um make the government to think twice, to hold
Speaker 1: their operation and to free in some cases these guys. Again,
Speaker 1: in the case of Jalisco, they were on the way,
Speaker 1: according to the official statement from the Mexican Army, to
Speaker 1: try to capture these two leaders, but didn't happen. I mean,
Speaker 1: the criminals get organized to blockade the actions of the authorities.
Speaker 1: In the case of Tiquana, we were not we didn't
Speaker 1: get to that point. Was more like there's also one
Speaker 1: theory which says that the local chapter or to speak
Speaker 1: of the carteli was just trying to replicate what happened there,
Speaker 1: just to to to show the force, to demonstrate the
Speaker 1: muscle as as a criminal organization here in Tijuana. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's basically the two theories that at this at this
Speaker 1: between them and the other one is that, um, they
Speaker 1: were just replicating a little bit in a in a
Speaker 1: in a different dimension, so to speak, what happened in
Speaker 1: just to tell them, you know, the same here, this
Speaker 1: is what you're gonna be facing. And that was a
Speaker 1: message for the authorities. Yeah, I saw a resident compared
Speaker 1: to what it was like in the early stages of COVID,
Speaker 1: like how ghost town it was. And I mean, what
Speaker 1: do you think about it? That's pretty powerful if a
Speaker 1: cartel can have the impact of a pandemic, if not
Speaker 1: more so, it's it's uh, it's terrifying. I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: I think, what's worse when we were now when COVID
Speaker 1: first begun in the lockdown and this will be too silly,
Speaker 1: but there's the red like districts that never sleeps. Here
Speaker 1: we went to that particular horridor. Nobody was in the
Speaker 1: main drag there. But it's a reality when we we
Speaker 1: we just we went out and we got video of
Speaker 1: this streets basically empty. Yeah, your video on your Twitter,
Speaker 1: we'll we'll find a way to link to. It was incredible.
Speaker 1: It was just like it's normally like the Strip in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas or something, and it was just a ghost town.
Speaker 1: Again on the people we found there was people looking
Speaker 1: for transportation. Yeah, it's crazy. So there's been a massive,
Speaker 1: at least show of state power in Tijuan in the
Speaker 1: last I don't know, four or five six months. Like
Speaker 1: they're constantly rotating new troops in. They do the parades
Speaker 1: with a big flag, and it's like to looking from
Speaker 1: the outside from a less informed perspective, it looks like
Speaker 1: there are these various actors, right, and each of them
Speaker 1: sort of flexes their muscles in a different way. And
Speaker 1: and is that relevant here? Has the army they discovered
Speaker 1: a tunnel if I remember correctly, have they done much
Speaker 1: else in Baja since I started these big deployments. That's
Speaker 1: one of the main complaints of the locals organizations civil
Speaker 1: or civilian organizations here because even though we have. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I make some notes, and we have five thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred and sixty soldiers UM right now in the
Speaker 1: state of Baja California, most of them in Tijuana, who
Speaker 1: have been deployed since August last year, which is when
Speaker 1: the National Austriity Austrility of Peace as the government called it,
Speaker 1: began UM. But unfortunately, I can give an other statistics.
Speaker 1: We have only just in Tijuana and the municipality of
Speaker 1: Tijuana so far this year, almost one thousand, two hundred homicides.
Speaker 1: I mean we as as a city, as a municipality,
Speaker 1: we have way more homicides than many Mexican states. This
Speaker 1: is the level of violence that we are dealing with
Speaker 1: in a daily basis. And and this is when you
Speaker 1: hear the authorities talking about a reduction on homicides, which
Speaker 1: is true, probably true in terms of the numbers of statistics.
Speaker 1: But still one thousand. We're we're a little bit past
Speaker 1: half the year and we already passed one tho homside,
Speaker 1: I mean when people get alarmed in Chicago is when
Speaker 1: you are hitting. I remember a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: like five hundred and the whole year we have this
Speaker 1: in three months and and and this is the kind
Speaker 1: of problems that we're dealing with. But you have to
Speaker 1: also keep it in mind. Last week the d o
Speaker 1: J of the US, the FBI, the d A, Customs
Speaker 1: and Border Protection have a gathering to announce that San
Speaker 1: Diego became the epics center for smuggling of Fentadel. Six
Speaker 1: of the seizures of Fentonel in all the nations occur
Speaker 1: between Sanito, the main part of entry here in San
Speaker 1: Diego to Calexico, and there's there are six parts of
Speaker 1: entry in this stretch of land and the end of
Speaker 1: the border on the western end of the border. Well
Speaker 1: these places is where more than half of the phantomel
Speaker 1: that is being smuggled to the US it's going through.
Speaker 1: That will explain partly the level of biodies that we've
Speaker 1: been didn't and how even though there's good efforts by
Speaker 1: the local authorities, state and local authorities, I mean, even
Speaker 1: given that there's cases of corruption, as in any other agency.
Speaker 1: Um alwould say that we have great, very capable detectives
Speaker 1: and police officers and Mexico but there but in many
Speaker 1: cases there's no political will from their bosses to really
Speaker 1: act on on and the on the benefited, benefiting the public.
Speaker 1: So this is the kind of build the problem world.
Speaker 1: You know, Fantai is now the most lucrative drug to
Speaker 1: to transport or traffic and between Mexico and the US,
Speaker 1: even with all the problems that is cons in in
Speaker 1: the US with more than one and twenty thou people
Speaker 1: dying in the last year or overdoses linked to opioids.
Speaker 1: But also now we have a problem that is growing
Speaker 1: with people dying with fantanyl overdose. Besides the fantany, the
Speaker 1: metal fantoming problem that also has been increasing the traffic
Speaker 1: here and now we are seeing the comeback of some
Speaker 1: drugs trafficking and deep and new levels like heroin and
Speaker 1: cocaine who came out of fashion for a while, but
Speaker 1: I always doing a kind of a resurgence at least
Speaker 1: in this corridor. Yeah, that's fascinating like that that there's
Speaker 1: been an increase specifically coming through that Baja California area.
Speaker 1: Maybe then we should explain a little bit about these
Speaker 1: three actors, right they c J n G will call
Speaker 1: them the cut the Sinaloa and the Ariana Felix or
Speaker 1: Tijuana Cartel. Can you explain a little bit about who
Speaker 1: they are and where they sort of fit into this
Speaker 1: where they come from maybe well I basically all come
Speaker 1: from the UH. People watching Netflix, Narcos and Netflix, they
Speaker 1: talk about this federation of cartels. Again everything the main
Speaker 1: power was from the state of Sinaloa and between nineteen
Speaker 1: mid nineties n mid nineties when the rest of Felix
Speaker 1: Gayarlo they established. They distribute the routes and one was
Speaker 1: the one of the Pacific along the Pacific from Sinaloa
Speaker 1: to the along the Pacific, and they basically um cut
Speaker 1: the country into different the main routes, and then you
Speaker 1: have different organizations. Those organizations who used to be together
Speaker 1: became a powerful house on their own, and that has
Speaker 1: increased the violence from the nineties because now you have
Speaker 1: from the beginning the Adriano Felix who used to take
Speaker 1: partners with the Chapel Uh and there are been in
Speaker 1: disputes and feuds among them. So the main one is
Speaker 1: was the main one and oldest is the Sinaloa cartel
Speaker 1: had by the Chapo usman Uh and now is myel
Speaker 1: el Mario Sambada, which is still a gentleman, gentleman around
Speaker 1: probably getting to their eighties I'm not quite sure, but
Speaker 1: but who has been on the run for many years
Speaker 1: but relatively calm and with big investments and with the
Speaker 1: high presence here in Baha, California, with that faction of
Speaker 1: this in a low cartel, and there's in a local
Speaker 1: there also when after the arrest of the Chapo is
Speaker 1: it's run. And the other big faction for the sons
Speaker 1: of Chapo Guzman Video and and the lost chapter, they
Speaker 1: call it los Chapitos. There's like three three even Archivaldo
Speaker 1: and I can't remember the name of the other one.
Speaker 1: So that's it's in a lot cartel with with presents,
Speaker 1: but mainly and then nothern part and really mainly basicly
Speaker 1: basically uh, their thing is to manufacturing um medam phetomine
Speaker 1: and now fanelil and send it to the US. UM
Speaker 1: then they are the Yellow Felix du organization who became
Speaker 1: as a result of that division, that distribution that according
Speaker 1: to the most commonly known narrative about drug world, um
Speaker 1: Felix dis tribe that after his arrest established themselves in Tijuana.
Speaker 1: They are from Sinaloa too, but they established themselves from
Speaker 1: Tijuana in the actually in the eighties but at the
Speaker 1: nineties they became powerful on its own and they due
Speaker 1: to the proximity of San Diego and to the fact
Speaker 1: that they missed mixed with many of the border lifestyle
Speaker 1: a lead of Tijuana. They changed the image of the
Speaker 1: drug traffickers. They micor became more entrepreneurs and they wanted
Speaker 1: to become the main the first Mexican cartel, Colombian pabulus
Speaker 1: of our style. According to the narrative, no, and they did.
Speaker 1: They became the nineties they were most one of the
Speaker 1: most powerful drug organization in the world for the amount
Speaker 1: of not just marijuana cocaine that they were moving. I
Speaker 1: mean they established relationships with Colombian and after a while,
Speaker 1: Colombians were not trafficking in Mexico. They were just sending
Speaker 1: the drug to the Mexicans. At the beginning, they were
Speaker 1: Colombians were kind of leasing the routes in the Mexican
Speaker 1: territory to send the drugs into the US. But then
Speaker 1: when this division of a new commerce and the drug
Speaker 1: trade in Mexico, they decided and I think the Ariana
Speaker 1: falls have some um something to do with that. They
Speaker 1: want to go and get the drugs from Colombians in
Speaker 1: the South and South America and bringing and just take
Speaker 1: care of the whole thing, become their own curtel. And
Speaker 1: then then Kalis another off offshoot is what you call
Speaker 1: it like a spinoff spinoff kind of another way, all
Speaker 1: the of the Salga because they used to have a
Speaker 1: presence in Guallahara and the different factions were killing each other,
Speaker 1: changing loyalties and then began a force on their own
Speaker 1: um after a big division between the beltran Leba group
Speaker 1: and the Nasal Coronal organization and they become their own
Speaker 1: cartain on the own. And and that's what according to
Speaker 1: the d e A and and also Mexican authorities is
Speaker 1: expanding more rapidly in very short period of time and
Speaker 1: then unfortunately have been moving not only to draw trafficing,
Speaker 1: but there's many small groups that now are making their money.
Speaker 1: And the whole way of the mafia, the cause A
Speaker 1: Nostra was doing their money in New York in the
Speaker 1: seventies or before, not that they were just extorting money
Speaker 1: out of local businesses, from a well established chain of
Speaker 1: stores to a little tagistan on the corner. There's also
Speaker 1: the trafficking of gasoline in Mexico and has been doubling,
Speaker 1: I mean anything that they once they get powerful, they
Speaker 1: began to move to other activities. For example, in the
Speaker 1: case of the anothetics, kick tapping wasn't a thing, let's say,
Speaker 1: before the ninety before the the nineties in Baha, California,
Speaker 1: they were kidnapping people who owned who used to be
Speaker 1: there their associates. Is the the where's my money kind
Speaker 1: of thing? You no like to think about good fellows
Speaker 1: and and and they were killing a chonge there is
Speaker 1: everything among themselves. But later they began that they were
Speaker 1: were they were acting with a lot of impunity, that
Speaker 1: they had a lot of cobs start this on their payroll,
Speaker 1: so they began to move to other ways to earn money.
Speaker 1: And that's what we have seen now that these expanding
Speaker 1: this little as in Colombia used to go to baby cartels.
Speaker 1: We now have like a new chapters, smaller organization, not
Speaker 1: as powerable, but as violent as as do what we do.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask because I saw a lot of
Speaker 1: these like supposedly like they come up on TikTok or
Speaker 1: Facebook right there, these little announcements from the different cartels,
Speaker 1: and they tend to say, at least in the context
Speaker 1: of California, that like, we don't want to disrupt ordinary
Speaker 1: people are good people, good citizens of Oa, California, you know,
Speaker 1: but we need you to stay in your homes this weekend, right,
Speaker 1: things like that. But it obviously does have an impact
Speaker 1: on the people who to doing what if they do
Speaker 1: to run their business. And so I was wondering sort
Speaker 1: of how people get through these difficult times in Antijuan
Speaker 1: and California. Well, times are becoming more difficult because many
Speaker 1: people believe this because the widespread possibility of disseminating these
Speaker 1: messages now and you never know which ones are real, yes,
Speaker 1: and which ones are not. Um. I mean, you guys
Speaker 1: have the same with the gangs, remember, like don't bling
Speaker 1: your your headlines because the end the gang will start
Speaker 1: killing people left and right. Just take that on steroids
Speaker 1: now with social media and and now everybody with the
Speaker 1: phone that can get that messages. And that was that
Speaker 1: played a big role in what happened on Friday here
Speaker 1: in Tiquana. They were recycling a video of three guys
Speaker 1: video taping themselves in from of the Attorney General's office
Speaker 1: in Tijuana. Says so Mantris here, we're gonna kill everybody
Speaker 1: and just being very loud and and and with a
Speaker 1: lot of insults and trying to scare the uh everybody,
Speaker 1: the rivals, but everybody else. So during the hours of Friday,
Speaker 1: somebody began retweeting that when was at least a year
Speaker 1: old b of them claiming that that they were they
Speaker 1: were over here. So some people think this all this
Speaker 1: commotion happening, a lot of this cars burn. They didn't
Speaker 1: know exactly what was going on. Some people began to
Speaker 1: call in narco b locals that just scare more people.
Speaker 1: And then you see this, so the level of anxiety
Speaker 1: increased significantly. You have to be very careful and there's
Speaker 1: also you have to also keep in mind the political
Speaker 1: feuds that we are seeing. What you are seeing between
Speaker 1: some people loyal to Trump and the Real Comparty and
Speaker 1: some people that are against Trump. Is the same here
Speaker 1: with Morena and non MODERNA actors or people who likes
Speaker 1: the Brenda, which is the political party founded creative by
Speaker 1: the current president, are the ones who are against them
Speaker 1: and are very unhappy or angry with all these social policies.
Speaker 1: Um and and for example, we have here a television
Speaker 1: station run owned by the former governor of Baja California,
Speaker 1: who has is a very close friend of Andres Manuelope
Speaker 1: or the current president, who became a very powerful figure
Speaker 1: and due to his proximity. Basically the current president revived
Speaker 1: this gentleman, which by the way lives in San Diego
Speaker 1: and Chula Vista in a big mansion because he exiled
Speaker 1: himself from about thirty years ago when he was associated
Speaker 1: with the last p r I government, the pre the
Speaker 1: political polity run Mexican for the last for seven years
Speaker 1: in a row. Uh, he was very close associate with
Speaker 1: he could Laba Morta, which was the the current governor
Speaker 1: who didn't finish his his turn because the and then
Speaker 1: president of Mexico, Carlos Arina's accused him of corruption, so
Speaker 1: he just removed him and this guy Himmonia, became a paria.
Speaker 1: So the p AN the new power basically mark him
Speaker 1: because also he has some previous suspicious relationships through the
Speaker 1: baseball team here in Tejuana and from other endeavors that
Speaker 1: makes them looks like very close to the Ariana Phelix
Speaker 1: U organization. The Ariana Phelix organization has been linked for
Speaker 1: many years with the last administration because they claimed that
Speaker 1: that last pr renstrations is the one who basically opened
Speaker 1: the door for the Ariana Felix to establish him BA California.
Speaker 1: So this is what we are seeing that that this messages, well,
Speaker 1: now this guy we just left the office that they
Speaker 1: just finished his governorship on December last year, so there's
Speaker 1: a new governor. But he also owns a television station.
Speaker 1: So he who is out criticizing the current governor, which
Speaker 1: is why where the same political party. It was uh
Speaker 1: using some of these messages with no proof or no
Speaker 1: validity or very suspicious and he was saying in their
Speaker 1: newscasts were saying, well, there's also this happening. There's the
Speaker 1: threads and they know that this government is corrupt, and
Speaker 1: they were just adding to the fire, and I mean
Speaker 1: as an analog, you know, the real fire, but to
Speaker 1: the concern of the people. And in this term like
Speaker 1: saying that all we're gonna start a lockdown and we'll
Speaker 1: be to what's for talking expression for toka like the
Speaker 1: you cannot go out, Yes martial martial will start at
Speaker 1: six if we see you on the streets. When I
Speaker 1: killed you. There was a message that that televiation station
Speaker 1: was repeated once and again every day, So I was
Speaker 1: just added to So all these all these new novelties
Speaker 1: sort of pig with the digital era are also creating
Speaker 1: bigger fires in the political spectrum and in a place
Speaker 1: where you never know what exactly the line is between
Speaker 1: the criminals and the government. Yeah, I think it's a
Speaker 1: very good thing to hide that. Actually this idea that
Speaker 1: there's like distinct blocks, right like and then this supplies
Speaker 1: And I don't want to say, like this is a
Speaker 1: Mexican thing, because it's not. This is a global thing,
Speaker 1: but like that there's a distinct block between like crime
Speaker 1: and media that you consume and the government and the
Speaker 1: people that like working for the state, like like the
Speaker 1: the idea that these are very separate and that the
Speaker 1: world doesn't it doesn't apply here, and I don't think
Speaker 1: we should say elsewhere either. Yeah, it's it's a problem.
Speaker 1: He's becoming it's becoming worse and worse. No, because this
Speaker 1: faction now, this other arena, mean, we are seen it
Speaker 1: here also with the official statements from the authorities. I
Speaker 1: mean I was telling you earlier that they the military
Speaker 1: had the Secretary of the Military says, well, in Tijuana,
Speaker 1: they didn't went against the civilians, and the governor also
Speaker 1: repeated that, so well here, fortunately they didn't affect that
Speaker 1: the life of the people. Of course, of course they did.
Speaker 1: I mean, we were lucky they didn't kill anybody, but
Speaker 1: but no, they did. And so you have to also
Speaker 1: be finding that propaganda from the government against the propaganda
Speaker 1: from the criminal groups and the different political legal factions
Speaker 1: in other quote unquote non state actors, just to put
Speaker 1: it in a different context. So it's becoming very difficult.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I always say, excuse me if I repeat this,
Speaker 1: but honestly believe, I mean, there's always great investigators detectives
Speaker 1: in Mexico willing to put their lives on the line
Speaker 1: for the good of people, but it's not always in
Speaker 1: the best conditions. And and this is like just the
Speaker 1: character of traffic. Uh probably you were you guys were
Speaker 1: very young when traffic came across. I mean, a very
Speaker 1: popular movie which is about from the nineties and the
Speaker 1: end of the night is probably Yeah, where where the
Speaker 1: one of the three main characters is an honest Mexican
Speaker 1: caps I. Fortunately I met several of the cases like that,
Speaker 1: but some of them have been killed due to their honesty.
Speaker 1: But also others that learned to survive and play along
Speaker 1: and try to do as much good as they can
Speaker 1: um within the circumstances they are dealing with. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think talking of good investigators who are trying to heal
Speaker 1: with difficult circumstances, maybe you should touch on the violence
Speaker 1: against suppress that we've seen in back California and in
Speaker 1: Mexico as a wholes. I mean you're comfortable talking about. Yes, yes, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: and this is terribly sad. A couple of hours ago,
Speaker 1: we just learned that the one of the reporters who
Speaker 1: was reported missing in the neighbors in state of Sonora
Speaker 1: was being found dead. So we have another killing of
Speaker 1: a reporter. We also saw that the case of stare As,
Speaker 1: they killed for employees of four workers of a radio
Speaker 1: station broadcaster. Yeah, affailingly randomly apparently randomly Okay, but then
Speaker 1: I mean we I mean, depending on which told you
Speaker 1: take your look too. Because there's like the official for
Speaker 1: the government, federal government from the CPGA, the from needed
Speaker 1: to protect journalists and or report other organizations. Bary is
Speaker 1: not that there's about ten or fifteen between I would
Speaker 1: say ten or fourteen or fifteen journalists or media workers skilled.
Speaker 1: So far this year, we have two of those killings
Speaker 1: happening here in Tijuana in in January. Um one of
Speaker 1: them them, I'm convinced by now that he was killed
Speaker 1: for the leader of rog trafficking cell was operating in
Speaker 1: the east side of the city, who wasn't pleased with
Speaker 1: some of the stories that one of the media outlets
Speaker 1: his name is one of the media outists that Margharito
Speaker 1: was working too as a freelancer. Wash was pushing very
Speaker 1: revealing stories about the operation of the traffic or so
Speaker 1: he ordered and pay for some other people to kill
Speaker 1: Margharito because he, and my humble opinion, was the weakest link,
Speaker 1: because he was living on the same neighborhood that these
Speaker 1: guys were operating, working the night shift. That is very
Speaker 1: common that only a few of them are left to
Speaker 1: to do that chief that beat uh. He was easily identifiable,
Speaker 1: identifiable for the crooks because Margarito will show up at
Speaker 1: the crime scenes and in many of these cases you
Speaker 1: have people who work for the same organization organize show
Speaker 1: enough to make sure that the guy was really killed
Speaker 1: and who showed up and and I mean even when
Speaker 1: the killing is done, the criminals are still working the
Speaker 1: scene and in some cases we met with these guys,
Speaker 1: guys without knowing. I mean, these guys were were um
Speaker 1: even willing to go to the funeral of Margharito. The
Speaker 1: only reason they were not there is because they were
Speaker 1: the approach is to a lot of military presence on
Speaker 1: during the funeral. So I'm convinced that Margarito was killed
Speaker 1: due to his work as a as a photographer. UM.
Speaker 1: In the other case of my friend all coworker, Lord
Speaker 1: de Sando, I'm not sure what was the motive. In
Speaker 1: both cases are two people in jail, but the procedure
Speaker 1: is still on the beginning stages. We are not proved,
Speaker 1: and the main thing is we don't know who order
Speaker 1: and pay for their killings. Well we know or I
Speaker 1: think I have a big suspicion about which one is
Speaker 1: the guy who killed them. In the case of Margarito,
Speaker 1: not in the case of Lords and the authorities, I'm
Speaker 1: not confident enough that they're gonna be able to solve
Speaker 1: the crime in this particular cases. The other one, there's
Speaker 1: two cases in Michigan, there's other cases and Tom lipas
Speaker 1: Uh I guess by now we have to count at
Speaker 1: least two or three and Sonora with the news that
Speaker 1: we got today. So it's difficult. I mean, not everybody
Speaker 1: is is risking their life when they're doing journalism in Mexico,
Speaker 1: but you never know when the danger will jump against you.
Speaker 1: I have a always tell this story about a photographer
Speaker 1: to what was called to cover a traffic accident my minority. No,
Speaker 1: not Well. The problem is that the the guy who
Speaker 1: was involved in the traffic and the accident was a
Speaker 1: drug blord, very a very well known operator, very dangerous operator,
Speaker 1: and he kept taking pictures. Thanks to some of the officers,
Speaker 1: firefighters and ladies who saw that he was being um
Speaker 1: treated not very naively, and the ladies that intervened, he
Speaker 1: was able to get away. He had to live town
Speaker 1: for a while. Uh, that's it. But that's the kind
Speaker 1: of environment that we are dealing with. It is not
Speaker 1: that every story makes you put you in the injured,
Speaker 1: but you never I mean, you can do a lot
Speaker 1: of You can be a reporter and not be on danger,
Speaker 1: not being you don't get into subjects that are tricky.
Speaker 1: You don't get too much in political corruption, and you
Speaker 1: don't you get too much on on drug trafficking, on
Speaker 1: kia and homicides. You're pretty much gonna be able to
Speaker 1: do fine. But but the promise sometimes if you're doing
Speaker 1: a story none related, there may be some link to
Speaker 1: put you in danger. And that's the situation. And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the level of impunity and on crimes again journalists is
Speaker 1: even worse than the level of impunity of general civilians
Speaker 1: in Mexico. I will say that journalists about ninety personal
Speaker 1: ninety eight percent and ninety eight percent for for for
Speaker 1: case of journalists on civilians, So our case is worse.
Speaker 1: The possibility of somebody will be punished for kill in you,
Speaker 1: it's it's very, very very say yeah, I'm sorry, that's terrible.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's again, like you said, it's not
Speaker 1: just a Mexican problem. You see in so many governments
Speaker 1: across the world where press our targeted specifically. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate your work even more knowing that the
Speaker 1: percentage of cases are just violence against you, so against
Speaker 1: you as a journalist is so high. It's very sad
Speaker 1: and it's very disencouraging. But I always, I mean, my
Speaker 1: familyhood is not copy because I'm still working on Friday.
Speaker 1: They called me the one. They want me to stay
Speaker 1: at the office. They don't want me to get out.
Speaker 1: Um and I understand, I understand pepperab and it's one
Speaker 1: of my mainscerns. But also on the other hand, it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, this is important information, even when we are
Speaker 1: dealing with an avalanche of information that is not necessarily
Speaker 1: well treated. We need to have good information so people
Speaker 1: will make good decisions. We are in a very small
Speaker 1: joint democracy. We just began to make in roads on
Speaker 1: electoral democracy. It's relatively recent. Began basically at the end
Speaker 1: of the nineties here in Baha, California, and has been
Speaker 1: moving to the two thousands and now we are unfortunately
Speaker 1: back back in many ways. But but now you can
Speaker 1: rely now on who is running the elections together. That
Speaker 1: information was very important. Now we need to be also
Speaker 1: very make a lot of big efforts to explain people
Speaker 1: that you can make progress. Mexico is making progress even
Speaker 1: this and these dire conditions. But you have to pay
Speaker 1: attention and also try to to learn where the information
Speaker 1: is coming from. That not all the media is the
Speaker 1: same that we have. We come from a big tradition
Speaker 1: of going and control media. Now media control or subdue
Speaker 1: trafficking organizations, and in some cases both are linked and
Speaker 1: and working to give your trouble. And also there's a
Speaker 1: lot of press that has chosen to just go with
Speaker 1: the prop and just live out of propaganda. And sometimes
Speaker 1: they do good things, like they go and give boys
Speaker 1: to the people in the local community, so the the
Speaker 1: water is re established or there's more um, there's no
Speaker 1: more need for to fix a park or to public transportation,
Speaker 1: And they do do good. This is important. All the
Speaker 1: the job of the reporters is good, but in the
Speaker 1: in the bigger and some of the bigger problems, they
Speaker 1: tend to be on the side of the government because
Speaker 1: the government found this way to give you a lot
Speaker 1: of public advertisement and to have you under their control.
Speaker 1: And many reporters want to be good journalism with journalists,
Speaker 1: but their editors of the owners of the companies are
Speaker 1: not willing to rouse that easy way to get a
Speaker 1: lot of money from the government, and more easily than
Speaker 1: to start putting themselves on the risk, which implies when
Speaker 1: you do heavily digging or criticizing the powers of being Yeah,
Speaker 1: how how would someone know that they're getting accurate information?
Speaker 1: In that case, This applies to every country in the world.
Speaker 1: You have to really be conscious and like seek out
Speaker 1: particular sources. But like in this case, what do you
Speaker 1: recommend for people? I mean it's difficult. You're right, this
Speaker 1: is a simple everywhere. But I guess the same recipe
Speaker 1: works here. I mean, just double chaired, don't check their sources,
Speaker 1: try to compare several UM media outlets and to see
Speaker 1: where it's reporting UM, whether each of them is reporting
Speaker 1: UM the same way that you find the way they
Speaker 1: are leaning in the US is the what you find here.
Speaker 1: But the problem is the established media, the how do
Speaker 1: you call it um? The traditional media is becoming less
Speaker 1: relevant because most of the main good journalism is done
Speaker 1: by small revolves soup. They began their own entities, their
Speaker 1: own platforms. I mean some cases there's good reporters working
Speaker 1: for good media outlets. Normally those are not local. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you see the big media companies, don't they don't
Speaker 1: have which some exceptional, but they don't have many people
Speaker 1: doing balizing at the local level. You will find good
Speaker 1: local journalism with these renegades or rebels that have people
Speaker 1: who have been fired from the big, larger organization and
Speaker 1: you have to be looking for those options. I mean
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that it's a guarantee that they're gonna
Speaker 1: gonna be independent completely. You also learned how to read them.
Speaker 1: For example, there's a good case of two reporters. We
Speaker 1: just where they resigned or were fired, we don't know exactly,
Speaker 1: but they from a well prestigious publication Lucally. They began
Speaker 1: their own operation. They have they are good, proven, proven
Speaker 1: as a reporters. You know what I'm trying to say
Speaker 1: that they have a reporter. Yeah, yeah, I thought that
Speaker 1: was what it was. I was just like, I don't
Speaker 1: actually don't know. I don't know phrases either. Yeah. They
Speaker 1: made a name for from themselves doing good journalism with
Speaker 1: other publications. I began their own media outlet, and some
Speaker 1: people who complaining about they were too close to some
Speaker 1: UH state agency with the new government. And they have
Speaker 1: great information. They do good, good um reporting, but you
Speaker 1: have to look curve carefully and which which type and
Speaker 1: where are they leaning to. So I always read them.
Speaker 1: I just take it with a grain nut salt that
Speaker 1: you will see say in English, to try to balance
Speaker 1: my intake of information from different sources. It's difficult to
Speaker 1: tell the people because they are not general The general
Speaker 1: public is not as involved or interested in media on
Speaker 1: and on the newspaper or on the news. We are
Speaker 1: because we live out of it. But people is doing
Speaker 1: their life and making the the will to move around,
Speaker 1: not for all of us in different France, as a doctor,
Speaker 1: as a housewife, as a teacher, and they don't have
Speaker 1: enough time to then to analyze media the way you do.
Speaker 1: So we I think we need to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of that. Try to tell them this is for
Speaker 1: this reason we believe this media outlet is living in
Speaker 1: this direction, this is subsidized, or is getting We do
Speaker 1: that this is getting this amount of money from the
Speaker 1: government and not this amount of money from the government
Speaker 1: that will give you a hand to take it and
Speaker 1: to see who are they dealing with. I mean there's
Speaker 1: guys who have been working for the governmen now are
Speaker 1: back to reports. I mean therese cases like that in
Speaker 1: the US. Stephanopolis used to work for the for the
Speaker 1: one of the presidents on h the guy for of
Speaker 1: Harball from MSNBC used to work for Nixon. I mean,
Speaker 1: we see this, but in this environment it is more
Speaker 1: difficult to to live out those connections. And it's always
Speaker 1: tricky to be moving from government jobs to journalism jobs
Speaker 1: because it's not I mean you have to so I
Speaker 1: mean when in my perspective, I never work for the government,
Speaker 1: I hope I would never have to do that. I
Speaker 1: respect the ones they do, but you as we need
Speaker 1: to be more transparent, transparent in that sense to be
Speaker 1: able to be fair with the people. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: There's this interesting development in Mexico that I've seen in
Speaker 1: some areas, like if I want to learn about like
Speaker 1: what's happening in the yucky pobulus in Sonora or in
Speaker 1: chapters like these people who will just be like citizen
Speaker 1: reporters on Facebook doing very local reporting that it seems
Speaker 1: to get really popular, but that they will sort of
Speaker 1: blow up really quickly doing this like Facebook only reporting.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting because there's a big need of information
Speaker 1: and they know many people in Mexico have learned to
Speaker 1: be the strugful of the quote unquote legacy media the
Speaker 1: expression I was looking for legacy media, the big companies
Speaker 1: um and And the problem is there's this risk that
Speaker 1: many of those media new media outlets which is basically
Speaker 1: Facebook accounts or TikTok accounts. Now, the people doesn't know
Speaker 1: how to deal with I mean they they are they
Speaker 1: have good intentions, but they don't really know how journalists
Speaker 1: should work. And in some cases they think, like some
Speaker 1: for example, that they can take money for different actors
Speaker 1: and that will help them to grow and and I
Speaker 1: guess you can, but but you have to be very careful.
Speaker 1: And this has been a big problem that I'll try
Speaker 1: to emphasize every time I talk about our situation. For
Speaker 1: many years, the government was too close or their reporters
Speaker 1: were too close to the government. The government will make
Speaker 1: easy with a lot of privileges for the reporters. So
Speaker 1: they learned to do this to work in this scenario.
Speaker 1: So if I was close to the government, they will
Speaker 1: expect it's a lot of things for me, so to speak.
Speaker 1: I can get good money. I can get probably a
Speaker 1: license to for a bar way quicker than somebody who
Speaker 1: is not doesn't have that access to the government. And
Speaker 1: I can probably get like um taxi licenses for example,
Speaker 1: because I'm a reporter, because I'm I'm close, I can
Speaker 1: get close to the movies and checkers and the political arena. No,
Speaker 1: but you so they did that and when the drop
Speaker 1: trafficking with the narcos became another power, many many reporters
Speaker 1: began to see it in the same way. So they
Speaker 1: were closely with the government was powered, and then we're
Speaker 1: coursing with the businessmen. And they were closely with the
Speaker 1: with the unions because they were giving them handouts or
Speaker 1: treat them them prevalently, or they were able to do
Speaker 1: some traffic of influence, who will give them some benefits.
Speaker 1: When the narcos became a problem regional power on their own,
Speaker 1: some of the reporters didn't see the different or gaining
Speaker 1: too close to that power, and that has put a
Speaker 1: lot of the reporters in danger. I think the reporters
Speaker 1: are learning a little bit more to stay away from
Speaker 1: those But there is also with the abandon of social media,
Speaker 1: many people who are really crooked or that they were
Speaker 1: not very interested in doing things ethically from the beginning
Speaker 1: that now see that with a Facebook account, with a
Speaker 1: TikTok account or Instagram or any other platform, you can
Speaker 1: pass by a reporter. So there's this need of information,
Speaker 1: but also it is filled with um with good and
Speaker 1: bad people. As in any other cases I always talk.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the all analogy of a gun
Speaker 1: is the gun bad or good? All depends on the
Speaker 1: circumstances you are using it. No, I would Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not not a gang guy. But I don't want
Speaker 1: to get into your your your political discourse about your
Speaker 1: First Amendment. That. Yeah, that's a whole another episode needed it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fine, he said, sure, did you have anything else? No,
Speaker 1: that was awesome, Thank you so much for all the information. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And talking of reliable media, where can people find you online?
Speaker 1: Where can they find your work? Where can they find
Speaker 1: your social media? The main thing is Tijuana Press dot com.
Speaker 1: That's main patroom is just an online needed media outlet.
Speaker 1: Is not a newspaper. It's just when we we have
Speaker 1: been changing our way of work because we began as
Speaker 1: a daily we're no longer to do that because we
Speaker 1: don't have enough resources for that. But also there's plenty
Speaker 1: of daily media outlets, digital media outlets for the daily stories.
Speaker 1: We want to do a little bit more in them,
Speaker 1: more investigative, more give you context of what is going on.
Speaker 1: We we are in Spanish, but you can follow us
Speaker 1: on Twitter on add Tijuana Press because we try to
Speaker 1: with our poor English, try to do some on tweets
Speaker 1: on English with the help of Google Translator or other Hell,
Speaker 1: guys who other colleague that will correct or spelling. But
Speaker 1: that's the main way to get all of us. Well,
Speaker 1: I think you're English is great. Uh you talked to
Speaker 1: us for an hour and I understood everything. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: but thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you, No, thank you, guys. You always help us
Speaker 1: to spread the world and to be able to put
Speaker 1: ourselves to be judged by the public. This is what
Speaker 1: it is more important for us. But we do invest
Speaker 1: in algorithms from any social platform because we believe in
Speaker 1: and that the people will be willing to find us
Speaker 1: if they are really interested. And you guys help us
Speaker 1: about in that sense. Yeah, thank yeah, thank you so
Speaker 1: much giving us some of your time. We really appreciate it.
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