Free Preview of Members-Only Content
To view the requested intelligence, you must be a Stratfor.com member.
Tijuana and Chihuahua Violence Remains High
The wave of violence that erupted last week in the Tijuana area showed no signs of slowing this past week. The death toll over a 14-day period has reached more than 100, as competing factions of the Arellano Felix organization have continued to battle each other, as well as outside cartels fighting for control of trafficking routes in the area. In one incident, a group of several men armed with assault rifles opened fire in a restaurant in the Rio Zone, a section of the city popular with tourists. Two people died and three were wounded in the attack.
This past week also saw a spike in killings in Chihuahua state, where 24 people died in drug-related violence in less than 36 hours. In one case, armed men entered a bar in the capital city of Chihuahua and shot 11 people dead, including a journalist. Many witnesses considered this to be an act of indiscriminate killing, though the presence of a journalist — reporters are popular cartel targets — may simply mean this was a case of unrestrained or undisciplined force being used against a particular target. The incident is reminiscent of an attack in August in the nearby town of Bocoyna, where several armed men opened fire at a family gathering and killed 13 people. In both of these cases, whether the violence was indiscriminate remains unclear, though that is certainly a possibility.
Grenade Attacks and Targeting the U.S. Presence in Mexico
Many of the recent Chihuahua and Tijuana attacks that appear to have been the result of gang-to-gang rivalries have included targeted assassinations, abductions and drive-by shootings. Another tactic popular with Mexican drug trafficking organizations that occurred frequently this past week is the drive-by grenade attack. A grenade thrown from a distance into a parking lot or a few random bullets fired haphazardly at a building are not a very precise form of violence. This tactic, which is popular primarily against police buildings and newspaper offices, accordingly is used more for intimidation purposes rather than actually to cause significant damages or casualties.
The targets this past week included police buildings in Jalisco and Sinaloa states, and, most notably, the U.S. Consulate building in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state. According to information available at this time, two unidentified men crashed a vehicle into the consulate’s gate, fired several gunshots at the building, and threw a hand grenade that failed to detonate. Police are reportedly examining video from surveillance cameras, but have not identified the suspects or offered a motive for the attack.
| Stratfor Members, please log in at the top left hand corner |
