Frontera NorteSur
March 2001

March 29, 2001
US Woman Arrested for Child Trafficking in Tijuana

Tijuana city police arrested a US citizen found near the San Ysidro international port of entry with a four-year old Mexican boy. The woman told police that she was going to cross with her son into California but officers did not believe the woman's story because she is "blond with white skin" and the boy whom she said was her son looked "hispanic." Police continued questioning the woman and she admitted that the boy was not her son and that she had been hired to get him into the US and take him to his parents that live in Los Angeles.

Among the woman's belongings police found a number of birth certificates, and vaccination and school records. Police believe that this means the woman has previously engaged in such activities.

March 27, 2001
Mexican Authorities Build Case Linking Tijuana Cartel to Colombian Rebels

Four alleged members of the Arellano Félix drug cartel (also called the Tijuana cartel) held in a federal prison in the state of México are said to be the cartel's Mexico City cell responsible for operating a guns for cocaine exchange with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).

According to José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, head of the Fiscalía Especializada para la Atención de Delitos contra la Salud (Anti-Drug Special Task Force, FEADS) the four men have agreed to participate in a witness protection program.

Mexican officials said that one of the men, Luis Aguilar Cota, will reveal the location, names and details of the relationship between the Colombian guerrillas and the Tijuana cartel.

The FEAD's Santiago Vasconcelos said at a press conference that the Mexico City cell is allegedly responsible for taking the FARC to Tijuana to organize FARC cocaine movements.

When the four men were arrested law-enforcement agents found 35 weapons, 2,830 bullets, 52 long bullet clips, 24 short clips, bullet-proof vests and uniforms from the Policía Federal Preventiva (Federal Anti-Crime Police, PFP). The date of the arrest was not indicated.

Source: El Diario, March 27, 2001.

March 23, 2001
Lent Demand for Seafood in Tijuana Draws in Feds

The Tijuana director of the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor, Profeco), René Mendivil Acosta, has said that groups from his office will continue watching seafood prices during Lent when demand is at its highest point throughout the year.

Mendivil also stated that Profeco has been monitoring seafood prices since the beginning of Lent, especially in working class neighborhoods where prices can be highest.

The Tijuana office of the National Restaurant Industry Bureau (Cámara Nacional de la Industria Restaurantera y de Alimentos Condimentados, Canirac) announced that its members attended a class for learning how to safely handle and prepare seafood.

Also, the Baja California office of the Department of Health (Secretaría de Salud) has stated that it has given classes to the staff of seafood restaurants on how to prevent food poisoning from seafood.

March 21, 2001
NGO Aid to Migrants Down in Tijuana

The director of the Tijuana Casa del Migrante (Migrants' House), Luis Kendzierski, states that his migrant aid organization has seen a 50% reduction in the number of people that it has helped since 1997.

Over the last three years the center has assisted approximately 5,000 migrants per year. In 1997 Casa del Migrante assisted 10,000 would-be emigrants to the US, said Kendzierski, a Scalabrini-order priest.

Kendzierski believes that the increased US Border Patrol presence has caused the change in migrant flows away from Tijuana and into more remote and inhospitable areas in BC.

Casa del Migrante Tijuana was founded in 1987 with the attention of helping all people that arrive at the border seeking to cross into the US without the proper legal papers.

Kendzierski explained that when people arrive at Casa del Migrante they are first interviewed to learn their case history and depending on their situation they have the right to remain up to 15 days at the center until they can find a job to support themselves.

March 19, 2001
Federal Crime-Prevention Police Director Favors Drug Legalization

Miguel Angel de la Torre, general director of tactical support for the Federal Crime-Prevention Police (Policía Federal Preventiva, PFP), said that he is in favor of legalizing drugs in Mexico as he believes that it is the only possible solution to end drug trafficking.

"It seems that it is the only solution, although utopian, for combating drug trafficking because of the tremendous corruptive power of drug money and the fact that money is more important than moral principles," stated De la Torre.

The PFP official said that drugs would have to be legalized throughout the world to achieve the desired results. He added that the legalization of drugs would result in the collapse of the world economy.

De la Torre also said that he agreed with the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes that a generation of youth would be lost to drug legalization. However, De la Torre believes that future generations would be saved because drug use would no longer be attractive and there would no longer be a profit motive involved in selling drugs.

The PFP currently has over 10,000 agents in Mexico dedicated to "guarding the lives and rights of citizens, preventing crime and preserving civil liberties, order and public peace," according to its mission statement.

In a separate story, in Tijuana's Frontera newspaper [no relation to FNS], the PFP said that drug traffickers are now using small boats to move marijuana to the Tijuana-San Diego border from growing regions in Sinaloa and Michoacán, both states on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Sources: Norte, March, 16, 2001. Frontera, March 19, 2001. Article by Jorge Morales and Ernesto Alvarez.

March 15, 2001
Tijuana Asks Radio Stations to Not Play Narco-Corridos

The Tijuana city council has asked local radio stations not to play songs known as "narco-corridos" which are songs played in the traditional corrido style but with lyrics that they say deify drug traffickers and justify drug running.

Catalino Zavala Márquez, of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), backed the voluntary ban of the songs that "lead to violence and illegal actions."

Zavala also stated that the city council unanimously supported the measure to approach the radio stations on the subject because, "it is currently necessary to develop a law-abiding culture among youth and to get youth to comply with the law as a means of combating violence."

Tijuana Mayor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid said that he is confident that the radio stations will go along with the council's request because the iniciative seeks to find healthier activities for youth and because narco-corridos only confuse the value systems of the youth.

March 13, 2001
UABC Receives Cuban Faculty as Part of Exchange Program

Five Cuban professors will teach and do research at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) campuses in Tijuana, Tecate and Méxicali as part of an exchange program that was signed on May 17, 2000. The professors specialize in such areas as chemical engineering, environmental science and communications engineering.

Two of the Cuban faculty members will teach a course on energy efficiency that will improve the relationship between the university and area corporations. The course will be given to UABC faculty members and local business personnel.

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), March 12, 2001. Article by Kenia Rojas.

March 5-9, 2001
No articles. FNS in Tamaulipas.

March 1, 2001
BC PRI Voting for Next Gubernatorial Candidate will be Open to Public

The upcoming PRI election for the party's next BC gubernatorial candidate will be open to anyone with a BC voting card that wishes to take part in the election. The election will be held on April 8, 2001 after a period of campaigning that will run from March 3 through April 5.

The candidate that receives the most votes will be the victor. There will be no run off election. The new voting procedures were instituted after PRI members made known their desire to hold open elections for future PRI candidates.

The PRI's major rival in the election, the PAN, selected former Méxicali mayor Eugenio Elorduy Walter as its gubernatorial candidate. In the PAN election in late January, 2001 only party members were allowed to vote.

Source: La Crónica, March 1, 2001. Article by César Angulo.