Mexico Makes Strong Moves to Quell Drug Violence

DAVID MAUNG / Associated Press

A caravan of Federal Preventive Police leaves a military airbase after arriving in the city to take part in an expanding fight against organized drug trafficking in Tijuana Tuesday.Mexican President Felipe Calderón's administration announced a major offensive yesterday against organized crime in Baja California, dispatching nearly 3,300 soldiers and federal agents to the state.Operación Tijuana will involve sea and air surveillance and intense patrolling, including roadblocks, of high-crime neighborhoods.“We will spare neither efforts nor resources to fight crime in order to re-establish minimum conditions of order and authority,” Secretary of Interior Francisco Javier Ramirez Acuña said during a news conference in Mexico City.The campaign will start in Tijuana, a popular spot for smuggling cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States. The state's largest city also has become increasingly violent. It had 353 homicides last year, out of 527 total statewide, according to the Baja California Attorney General's Office. Operación Tijuana will focus on homicides, kidnapping and drug and arms trafficking, authorities said.Mexico's Defense Secretariat alone is sending 2,620 soldiers, 21 airplanes, nine helicopters, 28 boats, 247 vehicles and a canine unit. The Mexican navy is sending high-speed boats and helicopters to intercept criminals along the coast.

Much of Baja California Travel Problems is Press Hype

Dear Baja Friends:
Below is an e-mail reply from Ron Raposa, Public Relations, Rosarito Beach, to a recent query re the article “Tourists Shun Crime-Hit Mexico Beaches”. This response can be applied to questions regarding any of the recently published negative articles.
Please feel free to share this with anyone voicing the same concerns.
We will be sending out dates and times of media interviews with Mayor Hugo Torres as well as any media releases.
Regards, Anne Hines

"From: ronraposa@hotmail.com Subject: RE: Tourists Shun Crime-Hit Mexico BeachesDate: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:46:01 +0000 Dear ......:
Thanks for conveying your concern. The story presents a very unrealistic perspective of the danger to visitors to this area. If you read it closely, you'll see that it refers to a handful of crimes that occurred in Baja over a several-month period, none of them in Rosarito. The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana had less than 200 complaints of any sort in all of 2007 from the millions of U.S. citizens who visited Baja that year. Even if some incidents were unreported, which is likely, it still is a very low number, lower than many if not most places in the U.S. Overall tourism to Baja in 2007 was down less than 3 percent. Security concerns figure in the decline, but it also can be attributed to a slow U.S. economy and high gas prices. The Rosarito Beach Hotel was at full occupancy on New Year's weekend. All this is not to say that Baja officials are unconcerned with the crimes that have occurred. People who come here are our guests and we want them to have a safe and pleasant visit. Being a crime victim is a horrible thing, and it is more unsettling when it happens in a foreign country. We fully realize this. Rosarito's new Mayor Hugo Torres, who also owns the Rosarito Beach Hotel, has made improving safety and procedures for visitors to report incidents a top priority. Baja state officials also are taking similar actions. In the near future, we will be doing a series of media conferences and releases to correct the misleading impression that the story you mentioned and a few others have created. Also, please contact me personally if you need further information. As well as being a city spokesman, I also am one of about 14,000 U.S. citizens living in Rosarito

Addressing the Issues in Baja California

Dear Interested Rosarito Beach Owners and Friends:

We're all painfully aware of our last 90 days of crime events that have occurred in our little City of Rosarito Beach.

All the negative press really is hurting all the local businesses. Today, I attended a meeting with the Guest Speaker, Ron Reposa, the new PR person for Rosarito Beach City Office. He is a gringo guy and has two assistants that are in constant contact with the negative media suppliers and trying to educate them, which is a bit delicate because the "basis of what they are reporting is true, but many times exaggerated". He will be sending out weekly press releases about positive happenings in Rosarito and the progress we're making as a City.

Hugo Torres is scheduled all next week on radio and TV talk shows in San Diego to be proactive and let the public know that he is now in office and the Mayors, Governor and the President of México is on board with aggressive programs and money to get Baja California back on track. Here's his schedule on that: Mr. Hugo Torres, Rosarito Mayor will present at:
Sunday 13 January, Radio Show from Lawyer in Blue Jeans, 860 AM at 8:00 AMFriday 11 January, NBC. Sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 AM Wednesday 16 January OR Friday 18, KUSI - Channel 51 Sometime between 8:00 and 9:30 AM (still waiting for confirmation)
The Police that are on the street now have been polygraphed and their guns have been tested to see if any ballistics match up with the bad guys. The Highway Patrol has been authorized to be more present in number and patrol more, the toll road. The green angels are 24/7 now (used to be only daylight hours).

The Mayor has hired a person by the name of Curi. There are 100 of us that are to call him if we see a Police car stop a Gringo. We report the the Police Car number, the location and time and they will make sure it is a legit traffic stop. I will be getting his cell number tomorrow. If you would like to be part of this effort, let me know and we will get you that number too. This will let the police know they (the City) is watching and along with a pay raise to the Police, they will get this cleaned up.

They have dedicated $200,000 (not sure that's ENOUGH!) to landscape and clean up the "Border Road" . They are posting signs with 800 numbers for an Emergency Crisis number for Gringos to call a special office with any problems. The State has committed to have a English speaking person on every shift in all police stations.

There is a Graffiti task force getting organized.

They're talking to the USA on increased border lanes to ease the border waits.

All these things will really impact the local businesses, real estate market, values and sales.

Over the weekend AOL and Yahoo put out a bad article on Rosarito Beach...you probably saw it.

The Board of Tourism has requested that I be one of two Local Realtors to be on their Tourism Real Estate Task Force and I have gladly accepted.

All of this being said, I think we're on the right track. We have a Passionate Mayor who is making lots of noise at the State and National levels in both countries. He has hired lots of people in his City Administration whom are young bi-lingual Mexican people as well as Gringo people in the spots he needs, to get this big job done.

This is just a quick update to let you know issues are being addressed.

Happy New Year !

Best of Blessings,

Diane Gibbs
Realty Executives

Safety in Baja ...something is being done

There are many people and government officials working hard on Baja safety for residents and tourist alike. See Story below...

Residents protest surge in crime rateBy Sandra DibbleUNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITEROctober 29, 2007Agencia Fronteriza de NoticiasDemonstrators take over Tijuana's Avenida Revolucion to protest Baja California's high crime rates.TIJUANA – Church bells tolled. Gas stations briefly stopped sales. And thousands of residents, dressed in white, marched yesterday to protest Baja California's soaring crime rate.Participants carried banners clamoring for justice and photographs of missing loved ones. One float depicted a crime scene, victims bound and blindfolded.The march preceded today's statewide “Caravan for the Security of Baja California,” scheduled to leave San Quintin at 6 a.m. The caravan will pass through Ensenada, Rosarito Beach, Tijuana and Tecate before arriving in Mexicali, the state capital, at 2:30 p.m.The Baja California Citizens Council for Public Safety, an advisory committee, organized the march and today's caravan. The protests follow similar events a year ago.Agencia Fronteriza de Noticias"We are in mourning," reads a banner. "Our family has been mutilated." They carry the photograph of Christian Bojorquez, kidnapped and murdered.Alberto Capella, the council's president, said kidnappings in Baja California are up for the third year in a row, with 220 so far this year.“There have been positive steps,” Capella told the Sunday morning radio program “Ahora en Domingo,” citing an increase in detentions of suspects linked to organized crime. “But crime levels have never been as high as we have here at the moment.”Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716;

Baja California to enjoy a few days of beautiful winter weather

Weather  in Baja California

Surface Chart / Satellite IR

11AM MT 01/04/08 Hello Readers - Please excuse our dust, we are in process of remodeling the BajaInsider. Today Baja will get a break from the north winds as a High establishes itself west of central Baja (blue arrow) and it's counter-clockwise rotation is bringing moisture from the Pineapple Express over Baja Sur. Baja California will get some afternoon clouds as a cold front (magenta arrow) sweeps into SoCal and will bring winter temps tomorrow. This is part of a very strong winter storm in the PacNW that is nearly as deep as a Cat2 Hurricane, High pressure is bring pushed east from the 4 Corners (yellow arrow) and will give us a several day break from the winds in the Sea of Cortez.

 

 

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BEautiful Weather in Baja California for the New Year

Weather  in Baja California

Surface Chart / Satellite IR

012PM MT 01/02/08 Another windy day in the Sea of Cortez as a very strong 1051Mb High (red arrow) slowly moves east. That deep Low (magenta arrow)  is drifting north along the NW Pac coast and seas on the Pacific side may subside in a few days. In our region, the Navy Sat image is still down, a High (blue arrow) will move onto our map today and bring clear skies, dry air and less wind for the next several days. We can expect a return to the north winds late this weekend or early next week as another strong High will move close to the SoCal coast.

 

 

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