After Tijuana violence, Mexicans call for enforcement

By Mark Stevenson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:07 p.m. January 18, 2008
Photo by PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune

TIJUANA, Mexico – Rosalba Padilla thought the first shots were nothing but construction in her quiet, upper-class Tijuana neighborhood. It wasn't until she looked out her window and saw a sea of police that she realized the noise was gunfire.

Down the street, at the Preschool of Happiness, director Gloria Rico activated the school's alarm, prompting police to rush into the building, their guns drawn. Rico said the children were terrified by the chaos.

“Some were crying, one vomited and another wet his pants,” she said, adding that the police quickly put away their weapons and started evacuating the children.

The gunbattle Thursday shocked even crime-weary Mexico. Many argued President Felipe Calderón should step up a yearlong crackdown on drug traffickers and other organized criminals that has sent soldiers into cities across the nation.

“What they need here is a heavy hand,” Padilla said Friday while surveying blood-soaked streets and a bullet-ridden police truck. “The authorities need to be strong, very tough. If they have to kill the criminals, then they should die.”

Update

11:41 p.m. Jan. 18, 2008

One of three Mexican federal police officers wounded in the shootout later died, bringing to four the number of law enforcement officers killed in the Tijuana area this week.