Peace in Tijuana paid for by steady flow of drugs north

Mexico’s famous border city of Tijuana is enjoying a lull in drug murders, for which the government is claiming credit. However, the truth is that the country’s most powerful drugs cartel doesn’t need to kill as many people there.

While other parts of Mexico are hit by an increase in drugs violence, the beheadings and massacres familiar a few years ago are now rare in Tijuana, a key battleground on one of the most lucrative drug smuggling corridors to the United States.

Nightclubs and restaurants that closed during violence in 2008 have reopened in the last year and officials say investment is picking up.

Long one of Mexico’s most vibrant border cities, lying just across from San Diego, Tijuana is home not just to sleazy bars and brothels but also to a cutting edge electronic music scene and internationally renowned contemporary artists.

Much of that changed, however, when battles between rival drug gangs sparked daylight shootouts and many brutal murders.

Residents remember how one day more than a dozen corpses were dumped opposite a school. Another day brought the capture of the “Stewmaker,” who dissolved hundreds of bodies in acid to hide evidence of murders committed by his gang.

So far in 2011, there have been 349 homicides in Tijuana, way down from the peaks of 820 in 2010 and 844 in 2008.

Mexico’s government claims credit for the improvements after flooding the state of Baja California with police and soldiers in 2009 and helping to dismantle the once-dominant Arellano Felix cartel by capturing several of its leaders.

“Until recently Tijuana suffered extreme violence, but commitment from the local police, the governor, has led to a drastic drop,” president Felipe Calderon said last week.

Tijuana’s recovery is a rare bright spot for the government but analysts say there is a more subtle reality – the decline of the Arellano Felix gang has allowed the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s strongest, to move in and take control. With a clear winner emerging from a turf war, violence has slowed, but the drugs trade is still flourishing here.

“The drugs continue flowing, without a doubt. What has diminished is violence between criminal groups,” said Edgardo Buscaglia, an security expert at Mexico’s ITAM university.

“Organised crime continues – drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, human smuggling and gun running. But it’s under a consolidated group (Sinaloa).”

Mr Calderon has staked his reputation on an army-led crackdown against the cartels but the conflict has claimed 42,000 lives since he took office in 2006 and the bloodshed is hitting support for his National Action Party ahead of the next presidential election in July 2012.

His campaign upset the balance of power, triggering a series of turf wars. The head of the Sinaloa cartel is Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman. He has managed to keep the peace in Tijuana by allying with local crime bosses, keeping drugs streaming north.

For years, the Arellano Felix gang ran Tijuana, using gruesome torture and executions to defend its territory.

Most of the original leaders are dead or in jail, leaving just a nephew, Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano. He fought off a challenge from the group’s top enforcer, Teodoro Garcia Simental, that led to the battle to dominate the city in recent years.

Sanchez Arellano made a truce with Guzman that gave him an advantage over his rival.

Simental was arrested last year and the Sinaloa cartel’s illegal drugs now pass through Arellano territory for a fee.