Mexico Under Siege

TIJUANA COMES BACK TO LIFE

Violence Is Down and Crowds Are Back After the Capture of a Dreaded Drug Boss

Waiters on restaurant row are welcoming customers they haven't seen
since the first days of the drug war. Police no longer patrol
neighborhoods in four-vehicle convoys. Kidnappings are down, and
late-night crowds are way up at clubs and bars.

"Look at all the single ladies here," said Juan Carlos Eguiluz,
taking in the bustling scene at his Cheripan restaurant in the Zona
Rio dining district. "Single lady. Single lady. Single lady. They
know they're safe and respected here."

Four months after the capture of the notorious crime boss Teodoro
Garcia Simental, this border city is showing glimpses of its old,
vibrant self. Like survivors of a Category 5 hurricane of crime,
residents are emerging from their homes, wary but hopeful.

While clashes in other key drug-trafficking centers such as Juarez
are reaching new heights of brutality, the uniquely savage violence
that has plagued Tijuana during the government's three-year war on
organized crime has declined dramatically since the January arrest.

Drug-fueled crime has always cycled up and down, of course. But there
are no signs that anyone of Garcia's ruthless ambition has stepped
into the power void. Although homicides still occur at a steady pace,
the beheadings, massacres and dissolution of victims in lye that were
Garcia's terrorizing trademark have largely stopped.

Near the bustling produce market on Insurgentes Boulevard where 13
people died in the gun battle that sparked the local drug war two
years ago, taco vendors push carts still bullet-riddled from the
shootout, but say there's no need to duck these days.

Across town, businessmen and politicians have cut back on large
security details that shadowed their movements and ferried their
children to school. "We feel that since they caught all these
monsters, things are going to calm down," said Genaro de la Torre, a
businessman.

In other drug war hot spots, crime bosses are distant, shadowy
figures whose killing rampages are a blur of anonymity. In Tijuana,
the violence had a face: Garcia's chubby mug.

He was a hometown narco-soldier turned renegade cartel lieutenant,
carousing in restaurants and banquet halls, roaming the city in a
convoy of armored SUVs and leaving behind a trail of tortured
massacre victims, proudly claiming responsibility with taunting narco-messages.

His gunmen killed hundreds of rivals from the Arellano Felix drug
cartel, and at least 45 police officers. He accumulated wealth by
holding for ransom middle- and upper-class residents, forcing
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of families to flee across the border to
San Diego. Many residents feared even saying his name, instead
referring to him by holding up three fingers to signify his nickname,
El Tres, the three.

To this day, some people avoid the sprawling eastern part of the
city, a mostly working-class area far from tourist destinations that
was Garcia's stronghold. One real estate developer sold out a
subdivision there, only to see some of his new homebuyers get kidnapped.

"It was almost like we put them on stage. They became targets. It
makes us feel horrible," said the developer, declining to be
identified for security reasons.

The developer, like some other businesspeople and lawyers, conducts
business nowadays at upscale restaurants in the Zona Rio, holding
meetings and sales calls between servings.

"I feel very safe here," said Alisha Oceguera, a 20-year-old student
who crossed the border from San Diego with friends to dine at
Cheripan on a recent Saturday night. Some parents still don't like
their children to stay out late, but many have eased their
home-by-dark rule, she said.

Some chefs say they're seeing double the number of customers from
last year. Some are people who fled the city, and now feel safe
enough to return to their old haunts. At Cheripan, the lines stretch
out the door on weekends, and the owner of the nearby La Querencia,
where a photo of visiting U2's front man, Bono, hangs on the wall, is
planning to open two new restaurants.

"People from Tijuana are dynamic," said La Querencia's owner, Miguel
Angel Guerrero. "You can't keep us closeted. We have to go out."

Mayor Jorge Ramos is laying out the welcome mat. The city has
successfully hosted several conventions and events in recent months,
including the World Junior Taekwondo Championships, he points out,
adding that visitors from Southern California shouldn't be afraid.

"We lived many difficult days, but with the arrest of more than 100
drug lords, things have gotten better," said Ramos, adding that he
has been able to cut back on a security detail that once totaled 24
bodyguards. "We want to invite everybody to see how things have improved."

Few U.S. citizens have taken him up on the offer. The city's top
tourist draw, downtown's once-raucous Avenida Revolucion, attracts
only trickles of tourists, mostly Chinese or Europeans who ride the
usually empty double-decker tourist bus around some of the city's
historic sites and shopping areas.

Government officials complain that the State Department's travel
alerts are scaring off visitors. After Garcia's capture, local
authorities hoped Washington would ease the warnings, but the U.S.
Consulate in Tijuana issued another one, saying Garcia's arrest could
trigger more violence.

"When gunfire/explosions are heard, immediately move to a safe area
with good cover," said the alert, which Mexican officials called
alarmist and contradictory. They note that the same travel warning
says there's no evidence that U.S. tourists have been targeted in any
narco-violence.

For many residents, a stark indicator of changing times is the new
nightlife scene burgeoning in downtown Tijuana. Called "La Sexta" -
for its location on Sixth Street - the area's funky theme bars
attract a mixed crowd of hipsters and professionals, college students
and young businessmen.

A few years ago, crime fears would have hampered the growth of the
trendy scene. But times have changed, said Rueben Flores, 35, a
bartender at one of the popular spots in the area, La Mezcalera.

"If there was violence, the Sexta wouldn't exist," Flores said. "We
wouldn't have business."