Tijuana’s 2019 Total Deaths Still Too High despite a Drop from 2018’s Total
(Photo : Reuters)

Tijuana, again, tops the list as the city in the country of Mexico with the largest total cases of homicides in previous years. It is exceeding other cities in the country by hundreds of deaths.

The city ended the year with an estimated 2,185 deaths from murder. The city's statistics regarding murder cases for 2019 is approximately 321 deaths lower than its record-breaking 2018 total. The statistics of the city had earned it the title as the "Most Violent City in the entire World" given by a not-for-profit Mexican association.

2019 is the second year the city recorded a minimum of 2,000 murders. The population of the city is approximately 1.8 million. It is common in the area that small-scale dealers get into violent activities and endangering their lives in the process of successfully selling drugs to a growing market in the local area. It is also a long-time battleground of foreign drug-trafficking groups to attain control over different routes to the United States of America. 

On the last day of the previous year, the dead body of a man aged between 25 to 30 years of age was found in the area around noontime. It was reported that the man got shot in the head. In the afternoon, another man was brought to the medical center in the city after acquiring wounds from a gunshot.

These two cases were the least reported crimes in 2019. However, this information may change for instances such as the discovery and identification of victims.

The secretary of Mexico for Public Safety named Alfonso Durazo stated during a conference with the media in the middle of December last year that the government will be implementing a new method of controlling the crime in the country with the assistance of the newly-established security forces National Guard and SEDENA. This had already decreased the total number of crimes occurring in Tijuana. The new force is tasked to patrol high-risk areas in the city. It is also responsible for the continuity of checkpoint operations in the city.

Despite the downward trend of the total number of deaths in the city, the total for the year is still at an alarming rate, said Durazo.

The two recorded deaths on December 31, 2019, and the four deaths recorded on December 31, 2018, shows the improvement of the security in the city.

According to Durazo, in the past, there were 24 homicides recorded in one day in the city of Tijuana. Currently, the number dropped to three to five. They are currently aiming to reduce the numbers.

According to the State Security and Investigation Guard commissioner from Baja California named Carlos Flores, the total number of homicides in the city of Tijuana makes up seventy-five percent of the total deaths in all over the state. Baja California is ranked the second-highest total record of murder in the country of Mexico for the year 2019. Despite the downward trend of the total number of murders in the area, he believes that the results are still too high and need to be brought to an even lower total.