Frontera NorteSur
November-December 2003

December 17, 2003
Sixty Tijuana Minors Freed for Christmas

"We hope to never see you here again," Manuel Díaz Lerma, Baja California's secretary of public security, told a group of 60 minors that were being freed from a juvenile detention facility, the Consejo de Menores Infractores (Council of Juvenile Offenders). 

At a public ceremony prior to the release of the youth, some of the young people received awards for their outstanding achievements in job-training workshops or in the classroom. The event also highlighted the skills and knowledge that all of the 60 minors gained from their participation in a social reentry program called ALAS. 

María Elena Rodríguez, the state head of ALAS, said that most of the young people would reenter society via the work place as they have limited economic means. However, education will be just as important to their future, she noted. 

Luz María Féliz Figueroa, president of  the Consejo de Menores Infractores (CIM) in Tijuana, stated that the work begun at CIM must be continued by parents in the home because there is no other way to change the behavior of the young people. 

Díaz Lerma, the secretary of public security, noted that recidivism has dropped over the last two years from 80% to 35% in the state. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), December 17, 2003. Article by Agustín Pérez Aguilar. 

December 8, 2003
New Library for Tijuana and Free Hamburgers for Prompt Water Payments

On Sunday, December 7, 2003, Tijuana's Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) inaugurated its new library, the Biblioteca Loyola. The library is the city's largest, according to the Tijuana newspaper Frontera, and was built at a cost of nearly 2.5 million pesos (US$211,000).

"The library has modern facilities with up to date infrastructure to help people access knowledge," said David Ungerleider, the director of the construction project. 

The new UIA library currently has 38,000 volumes but will be able to store up to 140,000. The facility also has a computer center and an auditorium for up to 200 people.

The UIA is a Jesuit university and is one of six in the UIA-ITESO educational system in Mexico. 

To see a past FNS article which compares libraries on both sides of the US-Mexico border go to: http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/apr-may03/educ.html

Free Hamburgers for Prompt Water Payments

Unpaid water bills are a severe threat to the health of utility companies on Mexico's northern border and throughout Mexico. For example, in 2001, Nuevo Laredo had delinquent accounts totaling the equivalent of approximately US$3 million which contributed to operational inefficiencies, slow service, waterline breaks and a lack of water meters for homes. In Reynosa, also in 2001, the utility company  there was shutting off the water supply to 750 homes per day on accounts that were three to twelve months delinquent. 

In Tijuana, the Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Tijuana (State Commission of Tijuana Public Services, Cespt) has decided to take proactive steps to keep accounts current. The first incentive that Cespt announced is a coupon given to people that pay their water bill on time. The coupon is good for a free hamburger with the purchase of a meal at a Tijuana restaurant. 

A second incentive is a 20% discount for up to five people at Foxploration, a theme park in Baja California related to Fox Studios Baja which was created for the filming of Titanic. 

Cespt is also looking for other companies that are interested in rewarding water users that pay their bills promptly. 

Miguel Avila Niebla, the director of Cespt, says that the water utility also offers a variety of payment plans for people that have fallen behind in the payment of their bills. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), December 8, 2003. 

December 1, 2003
Tijuana Closer to Getting a Home for Children with HIV

Tijuana may soon get its first home for children with HIV, says José Antonio Granillo, director of Las Memorias, a home on the outskirts of Tijuana for adults with HIV. According to Granillo, a church in the Los Angeles, California area has expressed interest in establishing in Tijuana a facility for HIV positive children.  

Granillo says that Tijuana currently has no place that provides specialized care and living arrangements for HIV positive children. However, such a home is urgently needed he says. Speaking about these children, Granillo notes, "Many of them are alone, their parents have died or are gravely ill and they don't have anywhere to live."

Even before the children get sick with AIDS-related diseases their lives are still complicated. Daycare centers in Tijuana often refuse to accept children with HIV. Other times, parents will pull their kids out of daycare centers when they learn that an HIV-positive child has entered the same program. 

Casa Hogar Las Memorias itself will have its five-year anniversary on January 3, 2004. During this time, the home has taken in over 700 people with HIV. Of these, a little more than 300 have died, Granillo noted. 

Las Memorias currently has 27 residents but has had up to 42 in the past.

Thanks to help from the Mexican medical system and San Diego NGOs, people with HIV living at Las Memorias can receive antiretroviral medications. The cost of the treatments is between US$1,000 and US$1,500 per month, per patient. 

Despite Las Memorias pharmaceutical resources, life there is not easy as patients must help take care of each other and the home does not have water service. Las Memorias can only be reached by dirt roads and is far from the nearest hospital and the center of town. 

For an article on life at Las Memorias, from the perspective of two men that were living there in 2002, go to a previous FNS article at: http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/sep02/Tijuananews.html and scroll down to the second story. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), December 1, 2003. Article by Daniel Salinas.