WEBVTT - Who’s Burning Busses in Baja California? 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:09.480 Hello, and welcome to It Could Happen Here podcast about 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:13.399 how the world is falling apart and sometimes about how 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.439 people are putting it back together. What is today? It's me. 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:18.880 I'm James, if you haven't worked that out yet, and 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.360 I'm joined by screen. Say hi, Shrien, Hi, This is Sharian, 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:29.200 Thank you, and I'm joined today by Vicente Calderon. He's 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:33.479 a freelance journalist and the proprietor publisher of Tijuana Press 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:37.200 dot com and he's covered the situation on the Grand 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.720 Tijuana for a very long time. It's an excellent work 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:41.800 and we've sent you what you people know about you. 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.199 Nice to have you here. Thank you for the invitation, 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.519 and in advance, I have to apologize for my English 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.199 because this is a picture on the street and the 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.480 Tijuana streets. It's excellent. Take a picture in the world 0:00:55.560 --> 0:01:03.160 kind of English. I'm a really originally a psychologist. I 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.360 graduated from the School of psychology here, but I only 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:08.679 worked for a couple of years and then I got 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.320 stuck with journalism and I have been here for more 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:17.320 than thirty years by now. I've been doing journalism from 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:22.000 radio and then I moved to television, and then I 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.920 went to the US to the work with Spanish language 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.880 media twice in l A and then I came back 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:35.319 and now I'm I'm doing online or or digital medium journalism, 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.200 so to speak. So I'm a native here and again 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.520 I was just supposed to be working this for a whilt, 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.880 and still I got old enough to look like a psychologist. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:50.280 I just got God on the on the um addiction 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:56.160 for journalism. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, Yeah, that's fascinating. All right. 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.000 So the reason we to talk to you today is 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.320 that we have seen a dramatic increase in violence in 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.360 Tijuana since Friday. Right, we're recording this on the Tuesday, 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.280 the sixteenth of August, so if people listening to it 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.520 later don't know, but can you explain a little bit 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:16.360 of what happened over the weekend in Tijuana and then 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.600 across Mexico as well. Well. The thing began on Friday 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.919 here in Mexicali and Tijuana. Megali is the capital of 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.600 the state of Baja California, which is in the northwestern 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.880 side the end of the US Mexico border. Um, so 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.000 we began seeing people burning cars on the road. They 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:40.240 were just ordering people from public transportation to get off 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:45.120 the vehicle. Uh not in a very so to speak 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.160 threatening matter kind of way, because they said, well, the 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:49.840 problem is that we do, but you have to get 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:54.880 off because otherwise because when we're going to burn this bus, 0:02:55.000 --> 0:03:00.760 and and nobody was actually no, it was really heard intentionally. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:05.520 We have just in Tijuana, we have about fifteen cases 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:11.560 like that. Was mainly public transportations vehicles or some cases frogs, 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.880 cargo trugs, or private vehicles. Most of it were public 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:20.120 transportation vehicles, but people were working, and we're moving people 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.960 from their homes to their works or to want to 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.639 run one errand to on other side. So we began 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.440 to see that this was in a very limited space 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:36.520 of time happening not only in in Tijuana and in Mexicali, 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.800 but also and five out of seven cities of Baja California. 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.680 Nobody was claiming responsibility, but it looks like it was 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:50.040 a coordinated effort in the basically the main cities of 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:55.480 the state. We were very surprised because even though we 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.880 have been dealing with drug violence for many decades, by 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.680 now we were seen something who looks like the narco 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.960 locales or blockades of the streets with drug traffickers, which 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.120 are unfortunately very common in other cities like mon Terrey, 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:17.280 for example, recently in Jalisco on the Pacific coasts in 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.320 the central part of Mexico, but not here in Tijuana. 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:25.200 I mean, I know it sounds rare or strange for 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.640 many people who know one of our his bad reputation, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.200 but now we never had cases like this before. That's 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.279 why it was so surprising at the end. That was 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.039 on Friday, and then immediately the local authorities began to 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:44.160 display not only police from different different agencies or also 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:49.000 soldiers who were coincidentally so to speak. We're here in 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:54.880 big numbers and large numbers because there's a really h 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.840 big push to put out more soldiers to help with 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.440 public safety and Mexico. Not everybody is pleased with that 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:07.200 because they say that Mexico is becoming a militarized country 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.799 and it shouldn't be, because we have to We're trying 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.279 to be a democracy, and in a democracy, is not 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:19.200 the military or the army in charge of so much responsibility. 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:23.400 But that's something that has been changing specifically with this 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:28.440 new federal administration with the president, and so they sent 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:33.039 out all of the soldiers and police officers and things 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:38.000 basically diminished. But but that time in about less and 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:44.360 in about less than two hours, people was already really scared. Obviously, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:51.159 the news spread and social media and people began worrying. Also, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.560 they began seeing that the public transportation was not enough 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.320 because many were just came to a halt. I mean, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.839 and not just the public transportation, the officials of the city, 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:07.919 but all the digital platform like uber, didy or other services. 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.920 We're just worried that it might be the next one. 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.839 So if I stay on the roads, am I going 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:15.760 to be the target of these guys. We were not 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.440 sure what was going on. We I guess everything one 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.920 has like an idea that this was coming or linked 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.800 to drug trafficking, but we were not sure at that time. 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.080 So um in a couple of hours, every we didn't 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.839 see more of these cases. But but at that time 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.640 the city was really disrupted, so they began closing. I mean, 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.799 the first thing who affected was public transportation. So people 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:44.599 was stranded without with no ways to go to back home. 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:51.200 And some schools were counseling classes and since the students 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:55.120 were not able to find transportation, some offered places to 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.919 stay to spend the night on the schools. Also that 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:04.960 happened in in Um with other companies with the Makiladora plants, 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.440 the manufacturing plants that are very popular. There's thousands of 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.440 people here and in Tijuana who were there also in medically, 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.680 but here also they in some cases have to open 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:19.120 spaces so they can spend the night there. And we 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.360 went out and was a lot of people stranded with 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:26.400 no place, with no way to move from where they 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:31.280 were when this begun. Yeah, I saw even like Kelly 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.840 Max that the supermarket was classed right like they closed 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.200 early and they announced that the next day they will 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.240 hold their operations, that they will not open so they 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:45.160 will not put in jeopardy to the safety of their workers. 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.000 I mean, and they that during Friday, we didn't know 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:53.720 what really what was going on, how severe was this happening. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.320 And just keep on mind that on Friday, Friday was 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.120 the end of the of a week of their re 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:06.239 violent scenes in different cities. It began in Guadalajara when 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:11.920 they were the army was trying to capture a couple 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:16.640 of drug lords or chief of cells from the uh Kalis, 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.680 the Alisca New Generation cartel, which is the quote unquote 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.600 newest and the strongest and most rapidly expand the drug 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:31.200 organization in Mexico and the problems there, the dynamic was 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.720 very very different. Again in Tijuana, even after the weekend, 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:40.840 nobody was killed. Just one person in Mexicali got injured 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.520 due to burns when while they were burning his truck, 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.480 but apparently nothing major. So in the case of the 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.280 World House a bit different. There were at gunpoint pulling 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:57.680 people families out of their private vehicles and also bosses. 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:02.840 And there there they were really actually located roads in 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.880 an effort to disrupt the operation from the soldiers trying 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:12.000 to capture their their bosses, and so the body's well 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:17.160 we're way more strong sort of speak there. And after 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:21.400 that it moved to one of another state where well 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:27.040 there's high presence of Cartel Alisco new generation, and two 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:31.040 days later we saw the worst case into that Quaries 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.720 across from the Passo Texas that what is also another 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.559 border town or border city should say that has been 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:43.160 dealing with a lot of drug trafficking caves and and 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:47.000 the things was terribly worse there. I mean they were 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:52.240 there killing civilians randomly. They got to convene its stores 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.280 like think about your seven eleven. The counter party is 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:01.200 called also it's a very uh big change in uh. 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.920 In one of these cases they just went in open 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:07.520 fire to the cashier and they killed him. In other cases, 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.959 a pregnant woman got killed and another one since they 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:17.000 burned this these places. The one who there's two persons 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.160 who died due to association because they got were cut up. 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.240 They were not able to flee the place when this 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.760 guys were showing up there. Many of these guys were 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.880 also yelling or screaming, um, hooray for the Caliskon and 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:41.280 Racian boss is called or Sea, I can't remember. He's 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:46.840 not Mencho Mencho Mencho his nickname Mencho or Saghara is 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.680 the leader of Calisco New Generation. And they were just 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.720 praising him and just saying that there were people from 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.640 Mencho and this they were just celebrating him as they 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.520 were doing all this destruction and terrorize and people. So 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.959 the worst part was in Sis. Sadly, I'm not saying 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.920 that this was not bad, but just we have to 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.440 put it on perspective and fortunately here suladly for the 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:16.560 people's Fortunately for the people here, nobody was injuring those 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:24.280 activities on Friday, that diminished on Saturday, but we got 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:29.360 more cases on Sunday night and mexically and we actually 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:34.560 have four about four cases on the first and the 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:39.600 last hours of Monday in Ensenada. We are still seeing 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.720 if all of these have been related to the same 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:49.199 effort due to organize crime or are just copycats because unfortunately, 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.120 unfortunately that also is happening. Some of the cases in 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.839 vehicality that happened on Sunday night were according to the 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.200 chief of police there just copycasts. Were just stay gonna 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.240 vents of the situation. I see, Well, that's that's interesting 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.720 because until someone takes responsibility, even if they do, all 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.000 the talks about like what cartels are one, that's just 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.560 like in theory, right because there you don't know who's 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:18.079 doing well, Am I understanding correctly? Well, yes, because it's 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:22.000 it's not like when a terrorist organization claimed responsibility for 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.800 a bombing um in the Middle East, for example. But 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.640 here the thing is now the authorities are saying that 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.880 it's well, was not just one, but different organizations they blame, 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.080 and mainly on Jalisco New Generation because it's one of 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.880 the along with this in a cartel more broadly extended 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.000 in the state different states, and in this particular case 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.080 they can link it. In the case of Jalisco and 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:51.200 Guanajuato because they got information of these two bosses getting 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:55.040 into a meeting and that's why they reacted. In In 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.880 the case of Gas was different because everything began there 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.160 without the few within inmates of the local jail, where 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:08.000 there are clearly two factions from the the two main 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:14.400 organisms stations who have been controlling turf in the parties. Here, 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.360 we were not sure because unfortunately we have not just 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.959 one or two. We have a three drug cartels or 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:27.320 trafficing organization who has been acting or the linking uh 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.199 for the several years right now, which is the relistan 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.679 new generation, the one we talked about, which is the 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:37.160 relatively newest organization. They sin Ala Cartel, who has been 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.840 from the cradle of drug traffic in Mexico steps in Alloa, 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.400 expanding the rocks that I'm sure they know. A chapel 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:47.400 from the Narco series very popular now has been the 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:53.840 public enemy number one according to Chicago for about eight 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.600 years ago and now in a jail in New York. 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:03.439 But there they're suns and their associates are still operating 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:09.680 their trafficing organization along different routes in Mexico and Baha, 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.400 California is one of those routes where they have a 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.880 lot of strong presence. And also the Ariano Felix organization, 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.480 the so called Tijuana cartel that is very popular, has 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:24.080 its own UM series on Netflix as part of Narcos Mexico. 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.800 This is the relevance of these kids who who grow 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:32.040 up as as criminals at the border between Tijuana and 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:38.400 San Diego. So we nobody has claimed responsibility UM as 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.960 in other cases, but I think it's it's it's safe 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.720 to know that these are the main suspects in the 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.240 case of Tiquana. It's also the possibility that the field 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:56.600 between these three organizations UM was an excuse for this 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.200 level of violence. I mean, everybody is trying to be 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:04.680 the strong girls force. So they challenged themselves not on 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.120 this not only in the streets, but on social media. 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.680 And this was also a way to challenge the authorities 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:16.560 because even though the authorities reacted quickly kind of subdue 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:19.760 more or frustrated more events, they were able to burn 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.400 fifteen cars at the end of the week. And we're 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:26.040 thirty six in different areas, in different cities. So that 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.840 is not something that you can say not authorities. The 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:35.160 military chief of the country saying, well with in Tijuana 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:40.640 didn't attempted against so the civilians, well they did. They 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.480 didn't kill them, but they burned their property and they 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:48.000 disrupted the whole operation. So we are also seeing very 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.520 carefully the way the local, the local and national authorities 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:56.200 are reacting because we were lucky now, but this is 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:59.320 probably will happen again if there's not a really strong 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:03.880 risk on from an intelligent response from the authorities. Yeah, okay, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.200 I'm sorry if I'm sorry if this is silly, but 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.440 is there any deeper meeting to it being specifically public transportation? 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.360 Like it just seems so specific to like target how 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:18.760 civilians are like transporting themselves. It's just like a show 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.120 of power to be like we're going to make everyone 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.320 freeze or there is there any deeper meaning to like 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.200 what they're targeting, not that I understand so far. I 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:32.720 mean for me right now is because as they did, uh, 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.280 they were successful and bringing the city to a halt. 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.240 I mean we went out and just think this was 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:44.200 a Friday summer night in revolution who has seen a 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.040 renaissance the last for the last ten years. There's a 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.600 lot of people coming from the U. S Side and 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:56.320 from Mexico to enjoy the gastronomy, local the bars, the 0:16:56.360 --> 0:17:00.520 party scene, what's dead. The only people we were found 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:05.640 we found there Friday night was UM workers that were 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.399 not able to find an Uber or the uber was 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:12.400 I talked to some of the Uber drivers that they did. 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.760 The drivers to me it went from one to seven. 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.760 I mean something will cause you ten dollars were costing 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.880 the press was now seven seventy due to the high 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:29.760 demand and poor offer. So no, I don't find another 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.159 another explanations so far, so far with the information that 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.960 we have until now, um that could explain. But they 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:43.480 did reach a big impact with this relatively easy actions 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:50.440 after all these coordinator attacks. Yeah, it's probably worth mentioning 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:55.040 the context of in one of Goose months kids was 0:17:55.280 --> 0:18:02.320 arrested and I believe dates around then, and there was 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.240 a huge, huge increase in violence immediately following that, right 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:11.960 and eventually Amblo the president gave the order to release him. 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.639 And oh that was yeah, there was My recent was 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:18.119 a video one of the main sons in in something 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:22.600 that we call the Kulia is the name of the city, 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:24.840 is the capital of the status Sinaloa. As we said, 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.200 I have family, My mother is from Sinaloa. And some 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.720 people from Sinaloa get offended when we said that it's 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.840 a cradle of drug trafficking in Mexico because most of 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.359 the power, the law, the drug laws come from from 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.359 from Sinaloa. But yeah, you're right, you're right. Uh, And 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.200 that's something that has become a big recurrent topic when 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:49.359 people criticize, especially the political opposition is the current president, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:55.280 because they said, this is the origin of this kind 0:18:55.600 --> 0:19:01.120 of demonstrations. So when when when the government wants to act. Now, 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:05.080 the criminals know that an effort, a coordinated effort to 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.600 get out on the streets and to show their muscle 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:12.920 could um make the government to think twice, to hold 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.719 their operation and to free in some cases these guys. Again, 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.240 in the case of Jalisco, they were on the way, 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.000 according to the official statement from the Mexican Army, to 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:28.280 try to capture these two leaders, but didn't happen. I mean, 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:33.199 the criminals get organized to blockade the actions of the authorities. 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.480 In the case of Tiquana, we were not we didn't 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:40.000 get to that point. Was more like there's also one 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.840 theory which says that the local chapter or to speak 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:48.080 of the carteli was just trying to replicate what happened there, 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.280 just to to to show the force, to demonstrate the 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:57.000 muscle as as a criminal organization here in Tijuana. Yeah, 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.800 that's basically the two theories that at this at this 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.959 between them and the other one is that, um, they 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.440 were just replicating a little bit in a in a 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.920 in a different dimension, so to speak, what happened in 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:14.280 just to tell them, you know, the same here, this 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.280 is what you're gonna be facing. And that was a 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:20.000 message for the authorities. Yeah, I saw a resident compared 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.439 to what it was like in the early stages of COVID, 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.280 like how ghost town it was. And I mean, what 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:28.280 do you think about it? That's pretty powerful if a 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.000 cartel can have the impact of a pandemic, if not 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.160 more so, it's it's uh, it's terrifying. I can't imagine. 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.040 I think, what's worse when we were now when COVID 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:45.159 first begun in the lockdown and this will be too silly, 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:49.720 but there's the red like districts that never sleeps. Here 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:55.639 we went to that particular horridor. Nobody was in the 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.560 main drag there. But it's a reality when we we 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.679 we just we went out and we got video of 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:06.040 this streets basically empty. Yeah, your video on your Twitter, 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.040 we'll we'll find a way to link to. It was incredible. 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.960 It was just like it's normally like the Strip in 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.880 Las Vegas or something, and it was just a ghost town. 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.600 Again on the people we found there was people looking 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:24.800 for transportation. Yeah, it's crazy. So there's been a massive, 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.359 at least show of state power in Tijuan in the 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.320 last I don't know, four or five six months. Like 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.080 they're constantly rotating new troops in. They do the parades 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:40.400 with a big flag, and it's like to looking from 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:43.040 the outside from a less informed perspective, it looks like 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:45.760 there are these various actors, right, and each of them 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.679 sort of flexes their muscles in a different way. And 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:53.400 and is that relevant here? Has the army they discovered 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:55.880 a tunnel if I remember correctly, have they done much 0:21:55.920 --> 0:22:00.480 else in Baja since I started these big deployments. That's 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:05.040 one of the main complaints of the locals organizations civil 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.359 or civilian organizations here because even though we have. I'm 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:11.800 gonna I make some notes, and we have five thousand, 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:15.800 six hundred and sixty soldiers UM right now in the 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.680 state of Baja California, most of them in Tijuana, who 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.400 have been deployed since August last year, which is when 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.639 the National Austriity Austrility of Peace as the government called it, 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:32.280 began UM. But unfortunately, I can give an other statistics. 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.760 We have only just in Tijuana and the municipality of 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:41.800 Tijuana so far this year, almost one thousand, two hundred homicides. 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:45.400 I mean we as as a city, as a municipality, 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:51.919 we have way more homicides than many Mexican states. This 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:53.880 is the level of violence that we are dealing with 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:57.479 in a daily basis. And and this is when you 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:01.640 hear the authorities talking about a reduction on homicides, which 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.320 is true, probably true in terms of the numbers of statistics. 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:10.720 But still one thousand. We're we're a little bit past 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:15.640 half the year and we already passed one tho homside, 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:20.160 I mean when people get alarmed in Chicago is when 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:22.399 you are hitting. I remember a couple of years ago, 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.720 like five hundred and the whole year we have this 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:29.760 in three months and and and this is the kind 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.680 of problems that we're dealing with. But you have to 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:35.800 also keep it in mind. Last week the d o 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:39.000 J of the US, the FBI, the d A, Customs 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:42.640 and Border Protection have a gathering to announce that San 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:47.160 Diego became the epics center for smuggling of Fentadel. Six 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:51.919 of the seizures of Fentonel in all the nations occur 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.000 between Sanito, the main part of entry here in San 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:58.080 Diego to Calexico, and there's there are six parts of 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:00.359 entry in this stretch of land and the end of 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:03.040 the border on the western end of the border. Well 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:07.080 these places is where more than half of the phantomel 0:24:07.240 --> 0:24:10.760 that is being smuggled to the US it's going through. 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:15.560 That will explain partly the level of biodies that we've 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:20.400 been didn't and how even though there's good efforts by 0:24:20.440 --> 0:24:24.840 the local authorities, state and local authorities, I mean, even 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:28.560 given that there's cases of corruption, as in any other agency. 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:33.960 Um alwould say that we have great, very capable detectives 0:24:34.000 --> 0:24:36.520 and police officers and Mexico but there but in many 0:24:36.560 --> 0:24:40.879 cases there's no political will from their bosses to really 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:45.640 act on on and the on the benefited, benefiting the public. 0:24:46.200 --> 0:24:49.760 So this is the kind of build the problem world. 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:54.560 You know, Fantai is now the most lucrative drug to 0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:58.000 to transport or traffic and between Mexico and the US, 0:24:58.200 --> 0:25:00.919 even with all the problems that is cons in in 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:03.440 the US with more than one and twenty thou people 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:06.879 dying in the last year or overdoses linked to opioids. 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:09.439 But also now we have a problem that is growing 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:14.440 with people dying with fantanyl overdose. Besides the fantany, the 0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:18.399 metal fantoming problem that also has been increasing the traffic 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:21.240 here and now we are seeing the comeback of some 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:26.040 drugs trafficking and deep and new levels like heroin and 0:25:26.040 --> 0:25:28.879 cocaine who came out of fashion for a while, but 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:32.680 I always doing a kind of a resurgence at least 0:25:32.720 --> 0:25:36.960 in this corridor. Yeah, that's fascinating like that that there's 0:25:36.960 --> 0:25:41.040 been an increase specifically coming through that Baja California area. 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:44.479 Maybe then we should explain a little bit about these 0:25:44.880 --> 0:25:48.760 three actors, right they c J n G will call 0:25:48.840 --> 0:25:52.199 them the cut the Sinaloa and the Ariana Felix or 0:25:52.200 --> 0:25:54.600 Tijuana Cartel. Can you explain a little bit about who 0:25:54.640 --> 0:25:56.679 they are and where they sort of fit into this 0:25:56.960 --> 0:26:00.480 where they come from maybe well I basically all come 0:26:00.600 --> 0:26:06.240 from the UH. People watching Netflix, Narcos and Netflix, they 0:26:06.240 --> 0:26:10.480 talk about this federation of cartels. Again everything the main 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:15.000 power was from the state of Sinaloa and between nineteen 0:26:15.880 --> 0:26:20.840 mid nineties n mid nineties when the rest of Felix 0:26:20.880 --> 0:26:26.240 Gayarlo they established. They distribute the routes and one was 0:26:27.200 --> 0:26:29.879 the one of the Pacific along the Pacific from Sinaloa 0:26:29.920 --> 0:26:35.159 to the along the Pacific, and they basically um cut 0:26:35.680 --> 0:26:38.720 the country into different the main routes, and then you 0:26:38.760 --> 0:26:42.439 have different organizations. Those organizations who used to be together 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:47.680 became a powerful house on their own, and that has 0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:50.639 increased the violence from the nineties because now you have 0:26:51.160 --> 0:26:56.240 from the beginning the Adriano Felix who used to take 0:26:56.440 --> 0:27:01.359 partners with the Chapel Uh and there are been in 0:27:01.440 --> 0:27:05.159 disputes and feuds among them. So the main one is 0:27:05.359 --> 0:27:08.399 was the main one and oldest is the Sinaloa cartel 0:27:08.800 --> 0:27:13.919 had by the Chapo usman Uh and now is myel 0:27:14.040 --> 0:27:18.600