Tijuana, August 12.- In two months, Tijuana has dropped from being the most violent municipality in the country to 15th place, and Tecate has risen to first place, said the Municipal Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Pedro Cruz Camarena.
He showed data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Security System covering January to July of this year, and stated that Baja California no longer had four municipalities among the 25 most violent, in contrast to the figures from two months ago (May 2021).
The Federal Government's Security Secretariat reported that as of June 2021, Baja California ranked second nationwide in intentional homicides, with a rate of 182.71 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to the national average of 63.81 per 100,000 inhabitants.
It must be a coordinated effort
According to figures provided by Secretary Pedro Cruz, in the first half of 2021, Tecate recorded a rate of 237.6, while Tijuana recorded a figure of 102.1.
Admiral Rafael Ojeda, head of the Navy, revealed a month ago that Tijuana ranked first among the most violent municipalities as of May, with 749 intentional homicides; Ensenada, with 158, ranked ninth; Tecate, with 124 homicides, ranked 16th; while Mexicali, with 92 homicides, ranked 23rd.
"Now there's no longer a neighborhood of 'don't mess around here' or 'let this guy go,' nothing, everyone is working. This is the effort of everyone—including you who cover the news—that has given us a deduction from this tax," the Secretary of Security said.
Cruz Camarena clarified that Tijuana's 15th place in violence "is nothing to applaud; we have to kick it out, we're still missing that. We have to get it out of those 15 places."
