VIOLENCE IN MEXICO
Violence in Mexico
Two people walk along a dirt road beside the fence that divides Mexico from the U.S. in Tijuana, Mexico. SPANISH: El nuevo muro fronterizo que refuerza la frontera entre Mexico y U.S., cuenta con torres de vigilancia y cámaras de video con capacidad para grabar en la noche. Esto hace que el trafico de armas y drogas sea mas dificil, y mas aun para los migrantes que intentan cruzar a los Estados Unidos. Tijuana, Mexico. *** Tijuana is a border city where it is easy to see the violence caused by drug trafficking, kidnapping, prostitution and drug addiction. This violence has also been encouraged by the poverty in which thousands of men and women live. After failing to make their way to the United State, they build metal, cardboard and wooden shacks in the hills or on one side of the wall dividing the two countries. There are well-known neighbourhoods where gangs involved in arms dealing and the trafficking of cocaine, marijuana and crystal, a damaging, synthetic drug, operate. Near the Tijuana River Canal, there are groups of addicts that buy, prepare and use heroin on a daily basis. The downtown area is the most popular place for retail drug sales, as well as the prostitution of women and transvestites. At night, police patrol the city and try to fight organized crime, arrest the leaders of drug cartels, confiscate weapons and dismantle underground greenhouses used for growing marihuana.
