Terror in Tijuana

Crime: Latest south-of-the-border drug violence reveals cartels with more weapons, less fear of harming the innocent | Lynn Vincent

Associated Press/Photo by Guillermo Arias

SAN DIEGO—In Baja Calif., weekends are a different kind of blast. On Saturday, Nov. 15, masked gunmen burst into a Tijuana pool hall and opened fire with shotguns, killing five people. On the same day, two men and a 14-year-old girl died in a shootout in a Tijuana street. The murders occurred shortly after at least 1,000 people, protesting the region's spiraling drug-related violence, marched through the city's streets carrying signs that said "Dios nos ahorra."

God save us.

Tijuana, a border town south of San Diego, has notched more than 600 murders this year as rival drug cartels clash with each other and Mexican security forces. In all, more than 4,000 people have died in Mexico's drug wars in 2008. Increasingly, cartels are targeting people—children and clergy—once considered off limits even for the lowest criminals.