SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Roberto Quijano Sosa, president of a citizens’ security council in Tijuana, says criminals have a total lack of respect and have no fear of police in Baja California.
“Organized crime has a message for police, they don’t care about them, where they might be, what they might do or whether they can stop them,” said Quijano Sosa. “They will continue committing crimes.”
He was also critical of Mexico’s National Guard, which has sent thousands of soldiers to the region in recent years to fight crime.
“They’ve had absolutely no presence or impact, they’ve had no results,” said Quijano Sosa. “They could leave tomorrow and no one will notice.”
The activist stated that the police needs to do more to protect citizens.
“We simply ask for them to get involved, what are they doing?” he asked. “In this state, we have more than 90 percent impunity, we know when a crime is committed, it’s very likely that it will never be solved and no one will be arrested or put in jail.”
Quijano Sosa pointed to the murder rate in the city of Tijuana, which he says remains high.
“If you look at the first months of the year, homicides exceeded what we had during the same time last year, but we’ve seen a rise in all types of crime,” he said. “In the first two months of last year, there were 367 murders, this year we had 415.”
