MEXICO:Mexican president Felipe Calderón has opened the second front in his new campaign against drug violence by sending 3,300 soldiers, federal police and navy seamen to the troubled border city of Tijuana.
Tijuana and surrounding communities are a key battleground for control of smuggling routes to the US, a bloody rivalry that last year left more than 2,000 dead throughout Mexico.
The campaign, called Operation Tijuana, comes only three weeks after Mr Calderón sent troops to his home state of Michoacan, on the Pacific coast, where federal authorities destroyed 600 acres of marijuana crops and seized more than six tonnes of cut dope.
Corruption and incompetence among local and state police have prompted Mr Calderón, who took office on December 1st, to promise federal forces to combat Mexico's growing drug violence. His top security officials said every state will eventually get relief.
Tijuana and the remainder of the state of Baja California have suffered increasing numbers of kidnappings and killings of drug traffickers, police, business owners and unlucky bystanders. In 2006 almost two dozen law enforcement officials were killed, including three police officers from nearby Rosarito Beach, who were beheaded.
"We won't let any state be hostage to drug trafficking or organised crime," said interior secretary Francisco Ramírez Acuña during a media conference on Tuesday announcing the new anti-crime initiative.
Tijuana's drug trade has long been controlled by the Arellano Félix drug cartel, once one of the country's most powerful drug trafficking organisations. The cartel's leadership has been weakened by killings and arrests in recent years, but authorities say the organisation and its rivals pose the main threat to local peace.
The capture in August of the cartel's alleged leader, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, worsened the crime rate, as rivals fought to tear off a share of the business.
Recent violence has been notable for its brutality and increasingly professional execution. The Rosarito Beach officers, for example, were abducted by a paramilitary force of heavily armed men.
Federal authorities said they will give a weekly count of arrests and drug seizures in Tijuana, as well as a tally of homicides, kidnappings and thefts. Drug cartels are believed to be behind a spree of kidnap-for-ransom schemes that target businessmen and professionals.
Mexican authorities said troops will remain in Michoacan, also a key transport state for cocaine. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)