Audio Clip
Tijuana's Mayor Takes Issue With Travel Warning
Tijuana's mayor is denouncing a travel alert the United States State Department issued this month warning Americans visiting Mexico, including Tijuana.
In media interviews recently, Mayor Carlos Bustamante has called on the State Department to remove Tijuana from a list of cities and states that travelers should be careful about or avoid altogether when traveling to Mexico.
The travel advisory warns travelers to exercise caution in Tijuana, and notes there were 278 homicides in the city between January and June.
However at a recent press conference, Tijuana's mayor had a message for the U.S.
"Tijuana does not deserve that alert, because you're causing it," he said.
He claimed much of the city's crime is committed by convicts that the U.S. has deported to Tijuana. Nonetheless he said police statistics have recorded a 25 percent overall reduction in crime since 2010.
Indeed, recent data compiled by university researchers shows that in 2012 Tijuana's homicide rate of 22 per 100,000 residents was lower than 9 major American cities, including New Orleans, Baltimore and Detroit.