On a recent night at one of Tijuana’s busiest traffic circles, a sea of black-clad demonstrators holding candles marched to the foot of the iconic Cuauhtémoc monument. “We want peace,” they chanted.
Last month’s candlelight vigil — held simultaneously in cities across the state — was organized by a group of business people in response to a series of violent crimes in Tijuana and the rest of Baja California, including the killing of the leader of the Ensenada chapter of the national fishing group.
“We have to take back our city,” said Carlos Jaramillo, president of the Tijuana Business Coordinating Council.
“We’re not saying this is new,” he added. “But there comes a point when you have to say no more.”
Tijuana — Mexico’s most populous municipality, according to the 2020 census — recorded nearly 1,000 homicides in the first half of 2024, mirroring last year’s numbers for the same period, state data show. Mexican officials have said that the vast majority of homicides are related to drug trafficking.
In the midst of this weariness comes a change in leadership for the border city, where 70 percent of its adult residents still feel unsafe, according to the latest National Urban Public Safety Survey. In the June survey, nearly 63 percent said they believe crime will stay the same or get worse in the next year.
Ismael Burgueño, the former state leader of the ruling Morena party, will take over as Tijuana’s new mayor on Oct. 1, and addressing the city’s public safety will likely be one of his biggest challenges.
He will take office the same day Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, begins her six-year term, and Mexicans will certainly be watching closely to see if she can end the years of violence that have left thousands of people dead and many more missing.
Burgueño, 40, a Tijuana native and former elementary school teacher, plans to tackle the problem on two fronts: developing a prevention program for youngsters and equipping the Police Department with more tools and technology. He also plans to bring back a former controversial police chief — retired Lt. Col. Julián Leyzaola.
Leyzaola led Tijuana police from 2008 to 2010, when the city was in the midst of a war between drug cartels. Mexican officials claim that the city’s crime rate dropped under his leadership. But at the time there were allegations that he had used torture as a tactic during his reign as top cop, which he has denied.
In 2015, he survived an armed attack in Ciudad Juárez that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He later returned to Tijuana for unsuccessful bids for mayor.
In 2020, the Baja California Attorney General’s Office charged him and his former deputy for alleged torture against two police officers. His deputy was arrested and released months after while the case was still pending. But Leyzaola remained at large.
In June, Attorney General María Elena Andrade said there was no pending case against Leyzaola by the state, only by the federal authorities. Since there was no conviction, he would have no problem taking a public post, she said.
Burgueño is unswayed by the stain of the scandal and said he intends to return Leyzaola to his old job as Tijuana’s secretary of public safety. The former leader was an important figure for Burgueño during his campaign, appearing together in political ads.
“He’s not coming here to learn,” Burgueño said in an interview with the Union-Tribune. “He’s coming to actually implement a security project.” Burgueño said Leyzaola assured him that results would be seen in the first six months.
Technology will be a core part of his security blueprint, Burgueño said, which includes 360-degree cameras on police vehicles, body-worn cameras for officers, and surveillance cameras around the city so that “when a crime is committed, it’s hard not to know who did it.” He said he was confident there would be a budget for it, and that even the private sector had offered to contribute if needed.
Last year, Tijuana’s Secretary of Public Safety Fernando Sánchez said that about 300 police officers — assigned to traffic and commercial areas — already had body cameras and that they were exploring the idea of adding more throughout the agency if the budget allowed, El Mexicano reported.
A significant increase in crime committed by youth is the impetus behind Burgueño’s other public safety priority. In 2023, the number of minors involved in criminal activities increased by 74 percent compared to the previous year, reported El Imparcial newspaper, citing data from the state attorney general. Most of the increase was due to activities related to drug trafficking.
“Unfortunately, and I say this with sadness, those who have strengthened the ranks of organized crime are the youth,” Burgueño said. He envisions programs that involve children and youth in recreational activities as a crime-prevention tool and to ensure that all neighborhoods have access to sports fields and parks.
Outgoing Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero acknowledged Wednesday in her final State of the City address that public safety remains one of the city’s biggest challenges, though she highlighted some progress during her istration. The number of homicides in Tijuana in 2023 decreased by 9 percent compared to the previous year, according to state data.
“There is still much to be done,” she said.
Burgueño said he wants to increase coordination with state and federal officials to strengthen the police force and add more officers to the department. He said the department currently has 2,400 officers, but the city needs about 7,500.
Burgueño has political allies in the governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Ávila, and among Sheinbaum’s team, which has also floated plans to provide more resources to young people, as the current president has done.
Good coordination between law enforcement agencies from the three levels of government is key in a city like Tijuana, noted former Mayor Karla Ruiz.
“Tijuana is an atypical city,” she said. “We have the sea on one side and the border on the other, the sea is overseen by the Navy and the border is the federal government … You face all these challenges where you have to work in a coordinated way.”
Jaramillo, the business leader who organized last month’s peace vigil, urged authorities to take strong action to combat violence.
“There’s a great opportunity with the new istrations,” he said. “We have high expectations that things could get better.”
Meanwhile, the community is demanding answers after a series of violent incidents throughout the city. Last month, shootings were reported at entertainment venues within the same week in Tijuana — including outside a crowded soccer stadium, where one person died, and at a waterpark, where five people were wounded.
While international media attention focused on the May killings of two Australian surfers and their San Diegan friend in Ensenada, a case that ended in arrests, Baja California citizens have also pointed to the hundreds of unsolved murders throughout the state.
In the commercial sector, some businesses have reported being victims of extortion by criminals who demand a fee in exchange for letting them operate without threats.
“We cannot let organized crime win and rule,” said Maribel Moreno, who does public relations for restaurants and culinary events. “Our governments have to stop it and put an end to it.”
