Will Tourism Tumble as Violence Peaks in Tijuana?

Locations in this article:  San Diego, CA

Art SoldiersTourism in Tijuana is suffering, and things are looking bleak after a recent wave of drug-related violence swept over the Mexican border town.

At least 50 people have been killed in a span of seven days.

Ten bodies were found on Saturday alone, two of which had been beheaded, and the others asphyxiated.

Notes left with the bodies indicated that the men had died as a result of a power struggle within the Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Reports as far back as June 2008 paint a gloomy picture of a near-empty strip on Avenida Revolucion, which once was a thriving tourist attraction, particularly for day-trippers from San Diego. Earlier this summer, local merchants reported that tourism was down as much as 90 percent from the 4 million visitors in 2005.

Other factors keeping visitors away include the struggling economy and border congestion.

Authorities believe the recent killings are backlash from a government crackdown on drug gangs that began nearly two years ago. Since Mexican president Felipe Calderon began sending thousands of federal police into drug-addled areas of the country in early 2002, the cartels have become more fragmented and disorganized.

As a result, factions have gone to war with each other, resulting in more than 400 deaths so far this year.

Police say that casual visitors to the city are not normally targeted by the gangs, though Americans living in Mexico are increasingly becoming the target of kidnappings.

Last year the FBI reported 26 abductions of U.S. citizens and legal residents in Baja California, and 15 so far this year.

Links: Washington Post, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Associated Press, San Diego Union-Tribune

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

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