Mexico Steps Up War on Drugs
 Associated Press
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January 18, 2010
| | Mexican soldiers patrol at a check point in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010. The Mexican government stepped up its fight against drug cartels, sending 860 more soldiers to Tijuana where violence has risen in recent months. (AP/Guillermo Arias) | |
Tijuana, Mexico - The Mexican government stepped up its fight against the drug cartels that are ravaging Tijuana, sending 860 more soldiers Saturday to the border city where violence has exploded in recent months.
The deployment comes just a day after 2,000 federal police were sent to Ciudad Juarez to bolster the 6,000 federal troops already there in the fight against drug traffickers.
In both cities, soldiers and police will work together to operate checkpoints and set up anonymous complaint centers, designed to allow residents to report crimes without fear of retaliation, the Defense Secretary's office said.
Tijuana, just south of San Diego, and Ciudad Juarez, bordering El Paso, Texas, are plagued with drug violence as rival gangs battle for control of trafficking corridors.
More than 15,000 people have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on cartels three years ago, including more than 2,500 people in Ciudad Juarez last year alone. Since Dec. 1, 2009, nearly 200 people have been killed in Tijuana. Last week's arrest of Teodoro Simental, Tijuana's notorious cartel boss, has raised concerns about retaliation and other attacks as cartels try to fill the leadership void.
As troops deployed to Tijuana on Saturday, the country learned that another fiercely anti-cartel journalist had been brutally killed and dumped on a highway near the northwestern coastal city of Los Mochis.
Jose Luis Romero, a reporter for a radio station known for his broadcasts about drug trafficking, was forced at gunpoint out of a restaurant in Los Mochis on Dec. 30. On Saturday, his body was found on a highway a few miles from the city.
Last week, in the northern city of Saltillo, a major regional newspaper announced it would stop covering drug violence altogether after the body of reporter Valentin Valdes was found with a threatening message. Valdes had reported the arrests of suspected drug traffickers.
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