Two Mexican Cities Hugging US Border Among the Country’s Most Dangerous

Experts are blaming drug cartel violence and the increased use of guns by criminals for a surge in homicides in the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border. Tijuana sits opposite San Diego, while Ciudad Juarez hugs the border with El Paso. The Mexican cities each have more than one million inhabitants. The 2016 murder rate in Ciudad Juarez is the highest in four years, said Francisco Rivas, director of the citizens’ group Observatorio Nacional Ciudadano which monitors federal crime statistics. The homicide rate in Tijuana, Rivas said, is the highest seen in a decade. According to statistics released by the group, homicide investigations in the state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located, increased by 80.4 percent in October, compared to the average of the previous 12 months. They increased by 14.8 percent in Baja California, home to Tijuana...more