Tijuana sees increase in murders for 2018

There has been a spike in murders in Tijuana in 2018 compared to 2017, according to the UCSD Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies.

The center said a record 2,518 people were killed here in 2018 — nearly seven times the total in 2012. The statistics makes Tijuana one of the deadliest cities in the world with 140 killings per 100,000 people.

The research at the center focuses on different forms of violence and the inner workings of organized crime and money laundering in North and Latin America.

However The State Department has not issued a travel warning for Tijuana like it has done for other parts of Mexico.

Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, Ph.D. with the UCSD Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies referenced a quote from Kate Linthicum’s LA Times article, “Meth and murder fuels Tijuana massacre”  that said, “In the past, the body count was driven by powerful drug cartels battling over lucrative trafficking routes to the United States. Now the main cause is competition in a growing local drug trade, with low-level dealers sometimes dying over the right to sell drugs on a single street corner.”

For more research found by UCSD Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies click here.