The shooting began before dawn today. As several vehicles barreled along one of Tijuana’s main thoroughfares, triggermen fired rifles and automatic weapons at each other in a wild and bloody Hollywood-style shootout. They careened down the street with military, state and local police in hot pursuit. Seven of the shooters died. That confrontation sparked a gunbattle in another area of the city, in which three died. Police confronted two men in front of a hospital and killed them. The body of another turned up at the hospital. Tally so far: 13 killed and nine wounded.
The only good news in this violent conflict staged on the populated streets of Tijuana is that the drug traffickers are apparently killing each other. One of the men wounded, not gravely, is a federal police officer.
Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja, California, where Tijuana is located, speculated that the dead are rival members of a cartel trying to settle scores. It could also have been a falling out between cartel factions, or a new cartel could be trying to move into the present cartel’s turf. Or the killings may have been revenge by traffickers against suspected snitches.
When the shooting was over, the city was riddled with scattered weapons, broken glass, blood-soaked clothing and corpses. Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes, and 54 guns. Many of the vehicles had US license plates.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón has taken a tough stance against the drug cartels, which is prompting organized crime into unparalleled vicious activities. Hundreds of soldiers and federales are now policing drug trafficking hot spots, especially along the border.
In what is a courageous – or maybe foolhardy – move, in an open letter to the Tijuana newspaper Frontera, Mexican Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito this week identified several high-ranking public officials and law enforcement officers alleged to be part of organized crime.