San Diego Union-Tribune More reasons to avoid crime-ridden Mexico

TIJUANA – The battle against organized crime brought Mexico's top federal law enforcement officials to Baja California yesterday, vowing new strategies and intensified efforts against kidnapping rings that have plagued the state in recent months.

NELVIN C. CEPEDA / Union-Tribune Rosarito Beach Police Chief Jorge Montero arrived in Tijuana and was escorted to a meeting amid heightened security. Five members of President Felipe Calderón's Cabinet attended the meeting.

NELVIN C. CEPEDA / Union-Tribune Top Mexican officials met amid tight security near the Tijuana airport to discuss intensified efforts in the fight against organized crime. After the meeting, they vowed to ratchet up efforts against kidnapping rings.

The presence of five members of President Felipe Calderón's Cabinet – the attorney general and the secretaries of defense, public safety, navy and interior – was seen as a critical show of support for state and local authorities struggling to gain control over criminal groups operating in Baja California. The state is a key transit point for drugs smuggled to the United States.

At a news conference after closed-door meetings between the Cabinet members and top Baja California political, business and civic leaders, Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán said the outcome was a commitment to intensified operations against crime, “with special emphasis and rigor in the application of strategies against kidnapping.”

The meeting comes 16 months after Calderón launched a major offensive against organized crime in Baja California. Called Operation Tijuana, it has been significantly ramped up since January, with the military taking on an increasingly important role.

“The violence, the wars between criminal groups, the killings, are symptoms that organized crime has grown weaker,” said Juan Camilo Mouriño, the secretary of interior.

Eduardo Medina-Mora, the attorney general, said collaboration with U.S. law enforcement authorities since 2003 has been crucial to attacking the notoriously violent Arellano Félix cartel, leading to indictments of numerous leaders in U.S. federal court.

Overview Background: President Felipe Calderón threw Mexican federal government forces into the fight against organized crime 16 months ago. Criminals responded violently. What's changing: The military is taking on an increasingly important role in the battle. The future: Members of Calderón's Cabinet pledge that they will intensify their efforts, especially against kidnappers.

Yet despite key arrests and numerous seizures, “the dismantling of the Arellano Félix organization, as we all well know, has not yet been as complete and successful as we all would wish, as Mexicans demand,” Medina-Mora said.

The meeting was held under tight security near the Tijuana airport, inside a sprawling sports facility on the campus of the Autonomous University of Baja California. It came a day after the slaying in Mexico City of a top federal police official, Edgar Millán Gómez, who had played a pivotal role in fighting organized crime, coordinating federal efforts with state and local authorities, including Baja California. His killing is being attributed to the Sinaloa cartel.

“The fact that this level of authority is here in Tijuana is significant and symbolic,” said Alberto Capella Ibarra, Tijuana's secretary of public safety, who survived an assassination attempt last year shortly before being named to his post.

“It's a battle that's going to take time,” said Rodolfo Valdéz, mayor of Mexicali, where state and federal authorities rescued two kidnapped businessmen Thursday. Six suspects were arrested, including their leader, a former Tijuana police officer dropped from the force in August.

Criminal gangs that once focused exclusively on smuggling drugs have turned to robbery and kidnapping to supplement their incomes. José Carlos Vizcarra Lomeli, head of a statewide citizens anti-crime group, said his group has counted 23 kidnappings so far this year in Baja California.

But Vizcarra estimated that the actual number is probably close to twice as high, because many victims' families distrust authorities and don't report the crime, choosing to negotiate directly with the kidnappers.

Tijuana's Frontera newspaper on Thursday published a wrenching letter from the sister of a kidnapping victim, Celso Katzuo Enríquez Nishikawa, missing since July 2007.

“I love Mexico and Tijuana, it's where I was born, but we can't live here anymore,” wrote the sister, Aiko Enríquez Nishikawa, who has sought refuge in the United States with her family after receiving threats. “Adiós Tijuana,” she wrote.