“El Bordo,” the area just above the bend of the Tijuana River, was recently cleared of transients by authorities in preparation for routine maintenance; yet, it appears that the throngs of people, mainly male, have …
September 28, 2013
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Stories by T.B. Beaudeau
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Gunshots fired near Tijuana’s El Chaparral border crossing
Tijuana, graveyard of the godforsaken gringos
Expatriate T.B. Beaudeau, a resident of Tijuana, relays tales of others like him; and the stories of those who met tragic/grim ends south of the border.
September 25, 2013
Sorry, California, French bucks go to Baja
Baja’s business sector is looking up, according to recent reports in the financial pages of Frontera, which reported earlier in the week that Baja’s business dealings with the U.S. and Baja tallied to $33 billion …
September 7, 2013
Document readers installed at San Ysidro border crossing
Crossing the border at San Ysidro last week, pedestrians, once inside the U.S. border station building, were greeted by mysterious devices at the head of each line. The devices appeared to be robotic in nature, …
August 13, 2013
Border-crosser subdued by agents in San Ysidro
Border-crossing pedestrians coming into San Ysidro witnessed a border-security takedown on August 5, as U.S. agents corralled a man and blasted him with a gaseous substance in order to arrest him. The incident occurred at …
August 8, 2013
Tijuana police prepare to move homeless from riverbed
Anyone who has crossed the pedestrian bridge over the Tijuana River next to the newly constructed El Chaparral border station in the past several months has noticed that hundreds of people are living in the …
August 6, 2013
Sidewalk vendors ousted from Tijuana’s historical district
Earlier this week, dozens of sidewalk vendors (known as comerciantes ambulantes) were banished from the banquetas of downtown Tijuana's Centro Histórico district. The raid on the informal shopkeepers took place on the night of Monday, …
August 4, 2013
Tijuana meat quality called into question
Tijuana's La Segunda newspaper this week offered a report that sanitary meat — be it beef, chicken, or pork — is out of control in Tijuana, devoid of any kind of quality control or review. …
July 31, 2013
Tijuana’s binational airport soon ready for construction
Most elements of the proposed Tijuana Aeropuerto Binacional have been settled and, theoretically, construction could begin in a few weeks. The airport will feature a trans-border facility that will obviate the need for American travelers …
July 23, 2013
Tijuana cops decline bribe from human trafficker
One hundred pesos doesn’t cut it anymore if you want to beat the rap in Tijuana. And 1000 dollars won’t do the job either, as a coyote (human-smuggler) learned this week. The suspect, Leonel Rivera …
July 21, 2013
How much longer for Tijuana “zonkeys”?
The “zonkey,” the zebra-esque black-and-white painted burros seen in several locations along Tijuana’s Avenida Revolución, is a dying breed. Lack of tourism along the route is blamed for the dwindling resources allocated to the creatures. …
July 19, 2013
Tijuana techie murdered for lack of skills
Police captured a man who reportedly confessed to murdering a TJ techie after he failed to properly hook up the killer and his four-man crew to the red mundial (internet) in Tijuana. The alleged killer, …
July 13, 2013
Pirated medicine becoming a problem in Mexico
Some 10 percent of prescription and over-the-counter drugs sold in Mexico’s domestic market are believed to be of dubious origin, and, in fact, pirated. This estimate was reported in Tijuana’s daily El Sol de Tijuana …
July 10, 2013
Election day in Tijuana brings irregularities
A hurled Molotov cocktail, a hijacked box of votes, and three individuals posing as journalists while doing some last-minute stumping for their party were reported as the most egregious examples of voting irregularities on election …
July 8, 2013
Border-crossing projects at San Ysidro and Tijuana
Border construction projects by the governments of the U.S. and Mexico were advancing at a rapid clip through the month of June. On the U.S. side, in San Ysidro, the three-story superstructure of the new …
July 8, 2013
100-pound turtle saved from San Felipe fish market
According to a few Baja newspapers, a large loggerhead sea turtle — weighing over 100 pounds and measuring about 96 inches in length and 66 inches in width — was saved from certain demise by …
June 26, 2013
Baja prostitution on the increase this summer
The warm weather and improved tourist climate have reportedly attracted prostitutes to Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tijuana, according to a recent report in Tijuana’s daily Frontera. The three cities, coastal and vacation-oriented, represent the axis of …
June 17, 2013
Wounded baby dolphin rescued in Tijuana
Swimmers and lifeguards at Playas de Tijuana saved a stranded dolphin on the evening of Tuesday, May 14, as it floundered about in the beach shallows. According to 14-year-old beach-goer Azul Garibaldi, the youthful delfin …
May 17, 2013
Tijuana nightclub shooting occurs in broad daylight
A suspected drug dealer was shot to death in a Zona Norte nightclub on Friday, May 3, at around half past noon. The bar, named Malquerida ("bad girlfriend"), on the corner of Constitución and Callejon …
May 6, 2013
Dept. of Homeland Security considers border entry fee
A translation of a front-page headline on Baja’s daily El Mexicano on Tuesday, April 23, reads, "They Might Charge to Cross to the U.S.” beginning in 2014. The story was about the U.S. Department of …
April 24, 2013
$20,000 in deep-sea fishing gear stolen, booze too
A six-man crew of youthful thieves stole 29 fishing rods valued at $20,000 from a private residence in Ensenada Thursday morning. The stolen rods were considered “pro-level” and were discovered at the group’s encampment in …
April 8, 2013
What the sequester means for the border
“April is the cruelest month…”, begins the first line of T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land,” perhaps more aptly retitled “The Wait Land” for the border region. This April, federal budgetary squabbles and sequestration cuts …
March 28, 2013
Rosarito policeman busted by Tijuana police
Tijuana police responded to the shouts and pleas for help from an imprisoned, under-aged female at around 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 13. Based on a tip given by a passing stranger, the female was …
March 16, 2013
Tijuana club shooting leaves one dead, one wounded
Two persons were shot at Tijuana’s Ruta 6 bar on Saturday night, March 9. According to reports in Tijuana's daily Frontera, one of the victims has died, while the other remains hospitalized, status unknown. Gunfire …
March 12, 2013
Truck-mounted drug cannon seized in Mexicali
Police in Mexicali were given an anonymous tip Thursday night, February 21, that narcotraficantes were delivering drugs from Mexicali, the capital of Baja, to Calexico, across the border. The method used: cannon fire. A home-made …
February 26, 2013
Medical tourism slows in Tijuana
Upticks in violent events in Tijuana and Mexico have brought a sudden halt to an encouraging rise in medical tourism to Baja, says Dr. Karim Chalita Rodriguez II, president of a medical group known as …
February 21, 2013
Prep-school student assassinated in Ensenada
A student attending a private prep school in Ensenada was murdered — reportedly shot at least ten times — on the afternoon of January 24. The recent arrival from Durango, Mexico, was reportedly lured from …
January 28, 2013
Tijuana waiter busted cloning credit cards
A waiter at a restaurant in the popular and upscale Zona Rio business district was recently busted by TJ police when it was discovered he was cloning patrons’ credit cards. The scam was discovered when …
January 9, 2013
Long Lines at San Ysidro Border Crossing
Long lines and long waits appear to be the daily order at the border this holiday season. Earlier this week, pedestrians stretched back a quarter of a mile; those waiting to cross in cars went …
December 15, 2012
New pedestrian inspection station soon at Tijuana border
New rectangular columns of steel rebar sprout into space from a plot of land on the Mexican side of the border at San Ysidro. The columns, easily reaching the height of the multistoried office building …
December 6, 2012
Border Pedestrian Bridge Gets Makeover
In the past year, various reinforcement and remodeling efforts have been applied to the old pedestrian bridge crossing the Tijuana River, the quickest and most efficient walking route to downtown Tijuana. The bridge, built decades …
November 15, 2012
Mexico's New Border Crossing Fails Grand Opening
The newly opened border-crossing facility dubbed El Chaparral opened its 22 gates to the full flow of Mexico-bound vehicle traffic on Friday, November 1, and motorists were forced to endure “embotellamientos” (traffic jams) in various …
November 6, 2012
Tijuana Protesters: Keep Old Border Crossing Open
A Tijuana citizens group, Los Integrantes de la Coalición Pro Puerta México (Coalition for the Port of Mexico) met in Plaza Viva Tijuana a few days ago to petition for the permanent opening of the …
October 31, 2012
Smooth Grand Opening of Tijuana’s New Border Crossing
El Chaparral, Mexico’s new port of entry adjacent to San Ysidro, opened yesterday, October 24, on a test basis, with a connecter road running along the Mexican-side border fence from Interstate 5 heading west to …
October 25, 2012
Power Outage Strikes Baja
A major power outage struck Baja on the afternoon of October 12, knocking out electrical power in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada, and San Felipe. A CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) press bulletin stated that some 760,000 …
October 13, 2012
Tijuana’s Yellow Cabs in Peril?
For decades, Tijuana’s Taxis Amarillos (Yellow Cab) franchise lot was located a few hundred feet from its greatest source of customers, just north of the U.S. border entryway into Mexico. Thousands of potential clientes every …
October 11, 2012
Say Hi to New Turnstiles at U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing
The new way to walk into Mexico via the San Ysidro route turns out to be pretty simple if one just follows instructions. No less than six bilingual women wearing red, short-sleeved polo shirts are …
October 2, 2012
Get a Manly Pedi in TJ
Pedicabs experience a surge of popularity in downtown Tijuana.
September 26, 2012
Say Bye to Tijuana’s Turnstile Entryway
Banners were hung about various pedestrian pathways into Mexico, warning border crossers that a change was going to come. On September 24, pedestrians were re-routed from the long-familiar spinning gates located on the west side …
September 25, 2012
Mystery Road Poured at U.S.-Mexico Border
Whether it will be used as a traffic route or just a utility road between the old Mexican border station and the new one (now under construction) is open to conjecture, but a new road …
September 19, 2012
Tijuana Storm Drains Release Sewage and Trash
Storm drains that lead to the Tijuana River estuary outlet just north of the pedestrian bridge (alongside the construction of the Chaparral border-crossing station) have recently emitted effluent known as aguas negras (“black waters”). Within …
September 5, 2012