On February 5 mothers of prisoners in La Mesa State Penitentiary in Tijuana demonstrated in front of the prison to denounce the financial struggle they have been through since their jailed relatives were moved to …
February 27, 2023
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Stories by Carlos Ivan Molina Aguilar
Tijuana mothers protest move of prisoners to El Hongo
Benito Juarez, last park in Tijuana's Zona Rio, has its heroes
13 years have passed since the Centro de Resistencia Sabino Arellano was first set up in Benito Juarez Public Park, one of the oldest and the last remaining public parks in the Zona Rio area, …
January 31, 2023
Rains collapse embankment on provisional road
On April 14 of last year, an earthquake with an epicenter in Ensenada rattled Tijuana hard enough that the city closed its Simon Bolivar bridge. Eventually, it was determined that the bridge’s infrastructure was so …
January 16, 2023
Compensation for explosion in 20 de noviembre neighborhood slow in coming
On April 18 this year an explosion took place in the 20 de Noviembre neighborhood, and a condo was destroyed due to a domestic gas accumulation. One people were wounded. Building shards thrown all over …
December 13, 2022
Tijuana gas station clerk stiffed, dies on El Pacifico busy street
In the early morning of November 15, Berenice Rebolledo got an unexpected call from an unknown person asking if she was Ruben Valencia's wife. The person told her that something had happened to her husband …
November 28, 2022
Bicycling advocate crushed to death in Playas de Tijuana
On November 2 the Colectivo Roll Por Playas held a tribute to Diana Pelaez, a cyclist and scholar from the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, who was crushed to death by a cargo truck while …
November 8, 2022
Man tore skin off his face in Tijuana street
In the last few weeks, the border line area in Tijuana’s river canalization known as El Bordo has been in the spotlight due to crime there. One of those crimes is drug abuse; the attendant …
October 18, 2022
Burning buses shut down Tijuana
Last Friday, Tijuana’s citizens experienced something that has never happened before in the city. Cartel violence has become normalized in the last few decades, but the town was in shock when armed groups burned at …
August 23, 2022
Once again, Tijuana runs out of water
The National Water Commission declared a state of emergency due to a drought that has hurt five states in Mexico. Baja California is on the list. One month ago an outage in the El Carrizo …
August 1, 2022
Caesarian gone wrong in Mexicali
A newborn child got injured after a C-section surgery was performed during a power outage at Clinica de Especialidades Internacional in Mexicali, Baja California’s capital city. Doctors in charge of the procedure decided to continue …
July 4, 2022
TJ cartels still cause mayhem in outskirts
Tijuana's Mayor Monserrat Caballero and her administration haven't been able to reduce cartel violence much. Not long ago cartels turned the city into one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico. According to the Baja …
June 13, 2022
How Tijuana's Little Haiti survives
125 Haitian families have settled in a plot of property of the nuns called Misioneras Franciscanas de Nuestra Senora De la Paz in El pedregal de Santa Julia neighborhood, four miles away from Tijuana’s downtown. …
June 6, 2022
Tijuana struggles to get ID cards out
Appointments for getting ID from the National Electoral Institution (INE), which is the main personal identification in Mexico, are been given till late July. Citizens in need of the document have been struggling with private …
May 23, 2022
Students make it to Valle de las Palmas as best they can
Baja California’s Autonomous University campus at Valle de las Palmas is located 29 miles east of Tijuana’s downtown. 5355 students, mostly from Tijuana and Tecate, make their way to Valle de las Palmas despite the …
May 16, 2022
Lomas del Rubi landslide victims get new houses
Four years after the landslide in the Lomas del Rubi neighborhood, which left 200 families on the streets, they were re-located. Andres Espino said that their happiness and excitement about their new homes evaporated when …
April 25, 2022
Blow-back on El Chaparral opening for Ukrainians
Last Thursday April 7, the El Chaparral Port of Entry at the San Ysidro-Tijuana borderline was reopened, after more than two years of its closure in 2020 due to Covid. To the surprise of many, …
April 11, 2022
Two 20-year-old women stabbed at Green Witch in TJ's Zona Rio
During the early hours of Sunday, March 27, inside the Green Witch bar at Zona Rio, in Tijuana, two twenty-year-old students from Baja California’s Autonomous University were stabbed for refusing to dance with a man. …
April 4, 2022
Migrant pregnant mothers don't feel welcome in TJ
For Honduran Anabel Guzman, 35, and her husband and three kids, it was impossible to pay up to 10,000 pesos ($500 USD) to give birth in Tijuana’s Main Hospital. Anabel and her family were living …
March 22, 2022
Tijuana's down syndrome soccer team to compete in Lima
The Diestro Soccer Down team, composed of Tijuana athletes with Down Syndrome, will represent Mexico in the World Championship Futsal Down in Lima Peru next month. According to Cristian Acosta, director and coach of Soccer …
March 11, 2022
Finally a memorial for those dissolved by acid in Tijuana
February 4 marked the 13th anniversary of the detention of El Pozolero (Ignacio Meza), a construction worker who used acid to dissolve more than 300 bodies for the Arellano Felix Cartel in Tijuana. (Pozolero means …
February 25, 2022
El Chaparral migrant camp cleared
After several attempts by Tijuana’s municipal government, to evict campers at El Chaparral PedWest port of entry, it happened. 385 migrants from Central American countries and some Mexican nationals woke up at dawn on February …
February 14, 2022
Ballads from El Chaparral aimed at President Biden
During the first months of El Chaparral Migrant Camp, when most of the settlers were Central Americans recently arrived, Miguel Salas found himself surrounded by nothing but brothers and sisters, as he puts it. He …
February 7, 2022
Tijuana journalists accuse Facebook page operator after Margarito Martinez death
On January 17, Margarito Martinez a 20-year veteran photojournalist was shot dead in front of his Tijuana home. He worked with local, national, and international outlets covering crime and police. According to the investigation run …
January 21, 2022
Tijuana women who smuggle marijuana from San Ysidro
For years, marijuana smuggling through the border flowed south to north, but since legalization in California things are changing. Some from Tijuana have found a market in the city that prefers to buy U.S.-grown marijuana. …
January 10, 2022
The first of Tijuana's rain tragedies this season
The storm that hit Tijuana and San Diego on Monday, December 13 caused the collapse of a section of the roof of Centro Comercial Otay in Tijuana. This plaza is one of the oldest in …
December 24, 2021
Historic St. Francis Hotel burns down in Tijuana
On December 9 the oldest building in Tijuana burned down, after 117 years of history. The Hotel St. Francis witnessed the transformation of the Tia Juana rancheria into one of the cities in Mexico that …
December 17, 2021
Truck drivers at U.S. border lose visas because of stowaways
Last January, 12 heavy cargo drivers have had their visas taken by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol; they were caught with undocumented migrants hidden on their trucks. The waiting lane for these trailers can …
December 7, 2021
How Black Friday worked for Tijuana shoppers
The re-opening of the border brought back the binational economy, especially in the U.S. due to lifting restrictions for tourists with visas. Even though Covid hasn't let up yet, Tijuana citizens still chose to take …
November 30, 2021
Lawyer kidnapped at 12 noon in front of Tijuana court
On November 3 at 12 noon, two armed men in a SUV with California plates broke into Tijuana’s Civil Courts and kidnapped a lawyer in front of the building. The courts are guarded by armed …
November 15, 2021
Tijuana installs fence around El Chaparral migrant camp
On Thursday, October 28 120 policemen and a contingent from the municipal welfare department showed up at El Chaparral migrant camp and put up a chain-link fence around the tents. This was part of an …
November 1, 2021
Where the marigolds come from for Dia de los Muertos
Local farmers south of Tijuana used to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and peppers, but starting eight years ago they have devoted one-quarter of their land to marigolds. This flower is considered as the flower of …
October 29, 2021
Guadalupe Valley draws the line at an amphitheater
On October 8 more than 300 neighbors held a demonstration against the construction of an amphitheater for massive events in the wine tourist area of Valle de Guadalupe. The Facebook group Por un Valle de …
October 19, 2021
Chaos in Tijuana's city council
On Wednesday, September 29 the last session of Tijuana's city council under the administration of Arturo Gonzalez was disrupted by a bomb threat. This happened during a discussion for voting over a law that aims …
October 12, 2021
Valle del Redondo squatters sneak onto liquified gas field
Squatters sneaked into a lot that is used for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) near Valle del Redondo, on the east side of Tijuana. According to the gas company’s lawyer Esteban Capella, around 8 pm on …
October 4, 2021
All is not wonderful where Amazon set up in Tijuana
Last week, photos of the new Amazon warehouse built in Tijuana reached national news. The controversy of Amazon’s new facility in the city came from its location in one of the poorest neighborhoods in town, …
September 21, 2021
Dead bodies pile up at Tijuana's Semefo
Once again the Forensic Medical Service of Baja California, known locally by the acronym Semefo, has been flooded with dead bodies. According to its director in Tijuana, Cesar Gonzalez, this situation has repeated since 2017 …
September 13, 2021
MS-13 gang rules Tijuana migrant camp
What started as a refugee camp close to El Chaparral Port of Entry in Tijuana has ended up as a sort of shelter for criminals and gang members from Central America. According to Paty (not …
August 20, 2021
Deported nine times, Esther Morales takes things into her own hands
“On this side, there are also dreams,” she says constantly to the people she helps out – migrants and deported persons. She was more than once in the same situation, but now she owns a …
August 10, 2021
“The poorest neighborhood in Tijuana"
At least 277 families have settled in and started a new neighborhood near the east edge of the city. The media calls El Cerro de las Abejas, 22 miles from the border, “the poorest neighborhood …
July 30, 2021