TIJUANA (Border Report) — The governor of Baja California has announced that 2,000 members of Mexico’s National Guard will be sent to Tijuana to help police agencies patrol the streets and maintain public safety.
The troops will be posted in some areas along the border but primarily in neighborhoods afflicted by violence, Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda said.
“I’m sure we will coordinate with others to curb this painful shadow affecting our citizens,” Gilberto Landeros, Baja California’s Security Secretary, said in Spanish.
Landeros added they know areas where conflict has prevailed in the past, but he couldn’t say exactly when the guardsmen will arrive.
“We as leaders are here to support policies or lines of action that the governor wants to implement and technically we have to find mechanisms to get results our citizens are demanding,” he said. “I can’t promise this will happen tomorrow or the day after, but I want to assure everyone it will happen.”
Without specifically mentioning it, Landeros is referencing a large number of murders and crimes brought on by drug cartels.
In the past three years alone, there have been more than 6,000 homicides in the city of Tijuana, earning the city the title of “most violent city in the world.”
