Hector Tobar learns some lessons in Tijuana

A vacation trip through Tijuana affords the opportunity to pass along some lessons about the fence that divides the U.S. and Mexico. But the teacher becomes the student, writes columnist Hector Tobar. 

I tried to give my kids a "teachable moment" when we drove through Tijuana this summer. But in the end, I was the one who got schooled.

I figured it's a dad's responsibility to pass on certain lessons about the way the world works. So I showed my boys, ages 10 and 12, the fence that divides the United States from Mexico.

Read the rest of Tobar's column here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Image: The fence that divides the United States and Mexico makes a potent statement. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Children's views from Tijuana and San Diego differ

This video dispatch from Mexican newspaper Milenio documents a workshop carried out by the Rennes University in France on the Mexico-U.S. border.

The workshop invited children from Tijuana and San Diego to share their views on the border and the countries that it divides, and the results are pretty interesting.

"One of the kids was actually surprised to found out that people in Tijuana actually drove cars, and that they have paved roads," said Ryan Washburn, an organizer of the workshop.

The video is in a combination of English, Spanish and French.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mexican tradition of massage lives on in Tijuana

United States tourists might be staying away from the Mexico border city of Tijuana these days due to soaring drug violence, but the mystical masseuses, or "sobadores," as they're known, are doing big business with Mexican laborer clients who head south to ease the aches and pains from their U.S. day jobs.

"The "sobadores" set up shop every morning alongside Tijuana's Cathedral in their battered SUVs outfitted with massage tables and curtains for privacy. They rely on a mix of massage and faith to cure everything from sore backs to bad knees -- at $20 (300 pesos) to $50 (700 pesos) a pop, reports the Associated Press.

Despite tighter border security and crackdowns on illegal immigration, "sobadores," whose skills are handed down through generations here in Mexico, say business remains steady because most of their clients work legally in the United States.

Read the full report at the AP link above.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

2 ex-gunmen from Tijuana drug cartel convicted of kidnapping

Sam Quinones reports:

Two former gunmen from the Tijuana drug cartel have been found guilty of kidnapping as part of a spree of attacks in San Diego County.

Jorge Rojas, 29, and Juan Gonzalez, 27, could face life in prison after their conviction Thursday by a San Diego County jury, said Mark Amador, the San Diego County prosecutor in the case.

The pair led a group known as Los Palillos (the Toothpicks) that focused its attacks on alleged associates of the Arellano-Felix drug-smuggling organization, which has controlled the flow of narcotics from Tijuana into Southern California for more than 15 years.

Read more of "2 ex-gunmen from Tijuana drug cartel convicted of kidnapping" here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photos: Juan Gonzalez, above left, and Jorge Rojas have been found guilty of kidnapping in San Diego County.

500 police officers replaced in Tijuana; Interpol liaison officer arrested

The Times' Richard Marosi reports from Tijuana:

Mexican federal agents and army troops fanned out across this besieged border city Tuesday to replace 500 police officers, the latest move by the government to purge the troubled force of corrupt and incompetent cops.

Last week, 21 officers, including two deputy chiefs, were detained on suspicion of having ties to drug traffickers and flown to Mexico City for questioning by Mexico's anti-organized-crime unit.

The moves come as authorities struggle to control a brutal war among rival traffickers that has killed more than 300 people in Tijuana since late September and left residents wary of large swaths of the city.

Despite past purges, the 2,200-member police department is still viewed by many as an arm of the drug cartels.

Officers have been accused of working as lookouts, informants, hit men or bodyguards for drug smugglers, and scores of them have been killed over the years.

Read more of "500 police officers replaced in Tijuana" here.

Meanwhile, the main liaison for Interpol here in Mexico was placed under house arrest as part of an investigation into links between officials and drug traffickers.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

1,500 protest Tijuana violence

Times wires reports say:

More than 1,500 demonstrators marched through the violence-plagued border city of Tijuana to protest recent killings and kidnappings.

Participants carried placards reading "God Save Us."

But the killing continued. Two people were shot to death at a taco restaurant, a man was shot to death at a pool hall, and two men were found shot to death on a street.

Go here for more about Tijuana and here for more on Mexico.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mexico's drug wars curtail holiday travel

Anna Gorman reports:

Every December for as long as Brenda Cardoso can remember, her family has spent Christmas together at her grandmother's house in Tijuana.

The celebration begins with nine days of posada parties and ends with an all-night gathering on Christmas Eve, with presents, piñatas, songs and homemade tamales.

But this year, her family is putting the tradition on hold.

Cardoso, 25, said she and her family are scared of the escalating drug wars and have decided to stay home in Downey for the holidays.

"It's not safe for us to gather over there," said Cardoso, who was born in Mexico but is now a U.S. citizen. "It's sad because it was a tradition that we grew up with. . . . Now, unfortunately, we can't do it because of how the situation is in Mexico."

Read more of "Mexico's drug wars curtail holiday travel" here.

Click here for more on Mexico, here for more about Tijuana, and go here for our special report on the drug wars in Mexico, "Mexico Under Siege."

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Image:  Brenda Cardoso says her family will not spend Christmas with her grandmother in Tijuana because they do not believe they will be safe. “It’s sad because it was a tradition that we grew up with.” Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

For Tijuana children, drug war gore is part of their school day

Richard Marosi reports:

The schoolchildren bounded up the rickety steps and followed the path of shattered glass into the two-story house on Laguna Salada Street. Two boys in neatly pressed gray pants flipped open their cellphones and took pictures of the pools of sticky blood. One teenager with a blue backpack pounced on a mangled bullet lying near a stained mattress.

Downstairs, girls in blue skirts and white socks carefully avoided the blood dripping through the ceiling.

The "Scarface" poster hanging on the pockmarked wall disappeared.

The day before, a shootout between Mexican soldiers and drug cartel suspects had left three suspects and a soldier dead in the safe house at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. Police had cleared the bodies, including the corpse of a kidnapping victim stuffed in a refrigerator. But someone had left the door open.

"Look, intestines!" yelled one teen, who was among dozens of children who streamed through the house between classes at nearby Secondary School 25.

"I think I'm going to be sick," said one boy, covering his mouth.

"It's shocking," said Victor Rene, 14. "I saw four dead guys last week, but that was clean. Their heads were wrapped in tape."

As Tijuana's latest flare-up in the drug war rages into its fifth week, with the death toll approaching 150, violence is permeating everyday life here, causing widespread fear, altering people's habits and exposing the city's youngest to carnage.

Read more of "For Tijuana children, drug war gore is part of their school day" here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Two boys on their way to school stop to look at pools of blood in a Tijuana house where a shootout occurred the night before. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Eight more dead in Tijuana

The Associated Press is reporting that overnight violence left eight people dead in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.

The state prosecutor's office said three teenagers, including a 14-year-old girl, were gunned down in the street; a few blocks away, officials found the bullet-riddled body of a man.

In another part of the city, gunmen opened fire on a car, killing two men. Assailants attacked another car before dawn Tuesday, injuring a police officer and killing a relative. A few hours later, the body of a man was found near City Hall, his head covered with a plastic bag.

Officials blame warring cells of the Arellano-Felix drug-trafficking gang for the wave of violence.

Click here to read more posts about Tijuana and the wave of drug violence ravaging the city.

Click here for more posts on Mexico.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Tijuana killings may signal fall of Arellano Felix cartel

The birthplace of one of Mexico's most infamous drug cartels looks more and more like its graveyard. Gunmen and associates of the Arellano Felix cartel, rulers of the city's criminal underworld for two decades, are being massacred by the score, reports Richard Marosi from Tijuana.

Their mangled bodies turn up in garbage-strewn lots, a dozen at a time. Killers cut out their tongues, slice off heads, and leave behind taunting messages. Two barrels of industrial acid left on a sidewalk last week are believed to contain liquefied human remains.

In all, at least 57 suspected organized crime members, a majority of them believed to be part of the Arellano Felix organization, were killed in the last week, including 12 dumped in front of an elementary school Sept. 29 and eight tossed in an industrial yard Thursday.

The carnage may be a sign that the cartel named for the Arellano Felix brothers is fractured and vulnerable to contenders, inside and outside the organization, who are looking to get control of lucrative trafficking routes into the United States, according to law enforcement sources.

Click here for more of the latest gruesome news on Tijuana, and go here for more on Mexico.

Go to our "Mexico Under Siege" page for more reporting on Mexico's drug wars.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: State police officers investigate the scene of a shootout between drug gangs in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 4. Credit: Guillermo Arias / Associated Press