Four Young Americans Killed in Tijuana – Fear Abounds

Residents of Southern California border towns nervously waited for news from Mexican prosecutors after four young Americans were killed in Tijuana recently. Prosecutors south of the border are trying to determine if the group was involved in Mexico’s violent drug trade or if there were merely innocent victims. The victims were two men and two women from the San Diego area who noted before crossing the border that they were headed to Tijuana for a night of partying.

A forensic toxicology report indicated, however, that one Victim, Brianna Hernandez, who was identified as being either 18 or 19 years old, had cocaine in her system. The other victims included Oscar Jorege Garcia, 23, who had been caught in 2008 with six illegal immigrants in his car but not charged with a crime, 20-year-old Carmen Jimena Ramos Chavez and one other as-yet-unidentified victim. The parents of Chavez noted, "She was a happy girl, with a desire to explore the world. Young people are like that. They think nothing will happen. I was like that, too."

Prosecutors in Mexico pointed out that the four victims had been bound and tortured, a practice common to Mexican drug gangs and perhaps implying that one or more of the group had some involvement with a gang. They were then left in a van in an unpopulated region of Tijuana. The news has those who formerly crossed the border regularly thinking twice. Said Amelia Lopez, a friend of one of the victims, "I’m not going to T.J. unless it’s absolutely necessary. Before, you know, you go to eat or have a good time or shopping. Nothing like that."