Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, and Ensenada experienced various scenes of chaos this weekend, with reports, including video and images, of burning cars and traffic blockades. The rampage followed a general threat, allegedly issued by the cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, urging people to stay indoors until 3 a.m. on Sunday.
Residents in Tijuana listened to the cartel’s alleged warning, posted across Mexican news platforms, which led to eerie posts all over Instagram showing empty thoroughfares that are usually bustling. Yesterday, the website for the U.S. Embassy and Consulates issued an alert to employees in the area to shelter in place. However, the U.S. Department of State—Bureau of Consular Affairs’ travel advisories still only list Baja under the designation “reconsider traveling to,” their secondary advisory tier. These acts of violence follow similar burnings that took place in Guanajuato last week, also allegedly incited by the CNG as a show of force.
Daniel Hernandez, L.A. TACO’s editor emeritus and a fronterizo raised between both Tijuana and San Diego, tweeted yesterday that wait times to cross back into the U.S. were “historically brief,” taking only five minutes. Average wait times around this time on any other weekend average more than three hours; on holiday weekends, you can usually double that.
To get an insider’s understanding of what exactly unfolded over the weekend, L.A. TACO interviewed the native Tijuanense-turned-urban survivalist, Ed Calderon, of Ed’s Manifesto. His expertise in what he calls “indigenous Méxican criminal culture” and bravery in always being among the first to fearlessly report cartel-related incidents has earned him hundreds of thousands of followers across the world.
He tells L.A. TACO that he was actually in Tijuana while the menacing events transpired in real-time.