4 US citizens found strangled in Tijuana

[mia]

Source: The Associated Press



TIJUANA, Mexico -- The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California.

U.S. consular officials in Tijuana said the victims - two men and two women from the San Diego and Chula Vista areas - were U.S. citizens. The state attorney general's office in Baja California said one of the women was Mexican.

Their deaths are the latest in a string of violence in Tijuana that authorities blame on a bloody turf war between drug cartels....


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/1049347.html

[virgogal]

1. Tijuana always had a rep,but who in their right mind would go there now?

[mia]

10. Young people feel invincible sometimes.

Glad I didn't raise my family on the border.

[EFerrari]

21. There was a time, in the 80s or so, when it was a great place to get away

for a weekend. My husband and I used to stay at the Americana. They had a world class golf course and a great French restaurant there and all the waiters were NICE, lol, unlike waiters in Paris. It's so sad to see it ruined. :(

[YvonneCa]

36. Children. Children ages 18 -21 go there...

...ALL the time. These kids were from Chula Vista where I lived for 27+ years. That's right next to the Tijuana border crossing. Kids cross ALL THE TIME because the drinking age is 18 in Mexico. Now, with all the drugs and violence, look what is happening...

Rep. Bob Filner is CV's congressional representative and I'm sure he will try to do something...so will Senators Boxer and Feinstein. But this needs to be immediate...there will be more kids crossing TONIGHT, and all weekend, and next weekend.

This is about protecting children...surely something can be done so that no other families lose their kids to 'a night of partying' in TJ. Adults are supposed to be able to protect children. This is AWFUL.

[Eric J in MN]

2. Murder investigations can last years.

The Mexican government shouldn't conceal the murders of four people from Saturday to Thursday because they're investigating.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Stay away from the border

I'm not kidding.

I'm not being snarky.

I'm serious.

As someone who grew up in the border, who has family leaving on the border, on both sides, stay away.

Unless you can hold up in a firefight against bazookas, RPGs, and AK-47s, stay away.

I have lost childhood friends who became Chiefs of Police and Mexican troopers.

They died tortured and bullet riddled.

Just... Stay away from the border.

I'm not kidding.

[mia]

5. Must have been a nightmare for all of the victims and their families

...At least three of the victims were from Chula Vista, a California town just north of the border, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Thursday. The two women, Brianna Hernandez Aguilera, 19, and Carmen Jimenez Ramos Chavez, 20, were reported missing to police in Chula Vista by their parents around the time their bodies were found at 1 a.m. Saturday....

The Baja California Attorney General identified the men as Oscar Jorge Garcia Cota, 23, and Luis Antonio Games, 21.

A woman who described herself as the mother of one of Garcia's friends told the newspaper at a rosary service that his family are "very nice people."

"In Tijuana, the violence is terrible," she said. "If you party over there, you don't know who those people are. That's why I don't let my son go over there."

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/14/Four-young-people-found-slain-in-Tijuana/UPI-81391242327277/

[rollin74]

8. very sad

I have to agree about staying away from the border areas.
A visit to Tijuana is hardly worth risking your life.

It's a shame. Way too much violence down there right now.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

28. I hear you.

Right now the drug lords and their gangs are so well armed and powerful it just isn't worth the risk. Too many of our southern border towns are a breath away from an eruption at any given moment.

This is the direct result of the war on drugs. We can only continue on this asinine course for so long before someone is finally going to have to factually address the issue and do something real and intelligent about this crisis. :(

[ZombieHorde]

4. And here I am worried about my math final. Perspective. nt

[jody]

6. Recently the captain of the Maersk Alabama told Congress the U.S. should put armed guards on board

ships to protect against pirates.

Before congress spends spends taxpayer dollars to protect corporations and their assets, we should protect U.S. citizens like those in the OP article.

That makes sense because our Constitution begins "We the People" and not "We the Corporations".

[wpelb]

7. Protect U.S. citizens in other countries?

Protecting ships against pirates is also protecting Americans if the ships have American crews.

It's not really practical to protect U.S. citizens when they travel to other countries, even border areas of Canada and Mexico. However, the U.S. government should work with local authorities to solve this crime, and any other crime that may happen to Americans who travel abroad, to the degree that doing so is practical.

[jody]

11. So you want government to protect corporate assets when SCOTUS says government is not obligated to

protect an individual.

I strongly disagree with your position because individuals are responsible for protecting themselves and their property whether in or outside the U.S. and corporations are not mentioned in our Cornstitution.

Any right a corporation has is a legal right granted by congress or by SCOTUS decision and in no way can be compared to pre-existing or inalienable/unalienable rights for individuals that are enumerated and unenumerated in our Constitution that government is obligated to protect.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. I don't think the US Government could have done too much

to protect those kids, beyond issuing a traveler's advisory, since the incident occurred in Mexico.

[jody]

12. I agree but my point is we should not place government guards on ships to protect them against

pirates.

Defense of self and property is a personal responsibility for each individual both inside and outside the U.S. and it should also be a personal responsibility for each corporation both inside and outside the U.S.

[downindixie]

13. Stop prohibition of drugs

legalise them and this shit will stop!

[roody]

14. Agreed!

[Art_from_Ark]

15. How do you know this had anything to do with drugs?

There are some really creepy people out there who just get their kicks by harming others.

[XemaSab]

16. The border violence recently in mostly a big turf war between different drug cartels

Legalization/decriminalization would defuse a lot of the power of the cartels.

[appal_jack]

17. true that. (n/t)

[Art_from_Ark]

19. I understand that the turf wars have led to a lot of violence

along the border, but in this case was it the reason why these kids were murdered? The mother of one of the friends said essentially that partying with unknown people in Tijuana was just asking for trouble.

[jberryhill]

24. Here's What I Don't Get About That

Criminals engaging in violence as an alternative to litigation to resolve business disputes, since their business is illegal, is something I can understand.

If I kill the other dealer on my street because he is with another gang, then I have gained a commercial advantage.

But how does this get down to kidnapping and killing day travelers across the border. I can see robbing them, or making customers out of them, but I don't get anywhere by killing them.

[XemaSab]

26. I got the impression that the "investigation" was into whether they were mules

:shrug:

[jberryhill]

30. Well, one tries to avoid this sort of speculation

...but sometimes avoiding it can lead to an inflated perception of risk.

[nichomachus]

22. Maybe

but most of the violence there is drug and gang related. Even in the US, most murder victims have some relationship with the murderer. Stranger on stranger murder is the exception, rather than the rule. It happens, but police always look first at friends, associates and family members.

[intheflow]

25. Very true.

These kids could have been racist assholes bend on harassing brown-skinned people. They may just have picked on the wrong the brown-skinned people. Of course that's just as much conjecture on my part as the assumption of it being drug-related. But based on the atmosphere at the border, I'd have to agree with the majority here that there's at least a 70% chance it was drug-related.

[rollin74]

31. victims names

The Baja California Attorney General's Office identified the victims as Brianna Hernandez Aguilera, 19; Carmen Jimenez Ramos Chavez, 20; Oscar Jorge Garcia Cota, 23; and Luis Antonio Games, 21.

source: San Diego Union-Tribune

I doubt they were racist assholes harassing brown-skinned people.


more details on the case here: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/14/1m14tjdead23480/

[intheflow]

32. You're right, I didn't read the names.

Thanks for the clarification. Now I'm going to up the probability percentage to the incident being drug-related to 85%. :hi:

[rollin74]

34. indeed

it's looking like a probable drug-related killing

link to an updated story: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/15/1m15tjdead235855-investigators-gather-clues-4-slay/

[Ignis]

35. With THIS particular situation? We don't.

But the "War on (Some) Drugs" has everything to do with the lawless environment that has been created at the border.

[Lena inRI]

23. I agree with #15 poster. . .

. . . just returned from a long stay in San Diego. . .my take on this quadruple murder?

FOUR murders in the fashion described (beaten stabbed) are acts of passionate hate and desperation.

Drug deal gone bad would have been quicker murders.

I sensed the impending danger much more this time compared to long stays in 1974, 1975 in Mexico and in San Diego 2006 to 2008.

What's changing for the worse?

Drug cartels have turned the corner in dominating over the Mexican government . . .essentially we are witnessing what ANARCHY looks like.

Include Ciudad Juarez while you're witnessing this. . .drove through El Paso where I sensed the same unraveling.

So, when desperate people can see the good life over in San Diego or El Paso literally from their lean-to slum backyards, they can easily turn into murderous anti-anything American.

The festering age-old dichotomy of US haves and Mexican have-nots is finally erupting. . .

And solutions? Yeah, President Obama doesn't seem too expedient about this. . .maybe he should call a smaller regional problem-solving summit to see how Colombia-Venezuela-Panama are controlling the lawlessness. . .

legalizing drugs would be only part of the solution IMHO.

:smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke:

[XemaSab]

27. You remember a couple months ago when that dude in Oakland shot those cops?

These murders are in no way justifiable, and the people who did this are thugs.

[joeglow3]

29. Maybe

Most people I hear talk about this say "legalize it and tax it." Tax it too much (i.e. like the cigarette tax) and this will all continue.

[proteus_lives]

18. I used to live in the Southwest.

This sort of mayhem is one of the many reasons I'm glad I don't anymore.

It's going to get a lot worse.

[democracy1st]

20. darn government so worried about whats going on in the middle east and our border and country is

falling apart at the seems everyday

[DU GrovelBot]

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