por ALFREDO AZCARATE VARELA
THE BAJA POST/EDITOR
Last Friday, August 6, three people were arrested in Mexicali, less than two hours after they had burned a passenger bus and fled, it happened in Gabriela Mistral section of the city, where Mexicali PD patrols arrested two men and a woman, alleged perpetrators of setting the vehicle on fire, as part of the simultaneous Friday attacks in Baja California, which seemingly ceased, while Baja Californians lock themselves in their homes, in panic.
They came from Tijuana to perpetrate the terrorist attack on Clinic 28, a cell of three people, as the cells number must have been throughout the State, in a simultaneous guerrilla operation that left 24 vehicles on fire all over Baja California, it may have been 72 people who could have been involved in the simultaneous attacks.
The detainees in Mexicali are a woman and two men, she has a criminal record for grand theft auto and violent robbery in commerce and businesses, her name is Magdalena “N”, 40 years old, her address is in Colonia Jardines de La Mesa in the City of Tijuana, her record includes 5 criminal offenses, one for vehicle theft, another for a similar theft and a third for motor vehicle theft, which is about the same as the other two.
The other two members of this terrorist cell are: Luis Javier “N”, 19 years old, and the third was identified as Sergio Andrés “N”, 26 years old, both from Tijuana and with no criminal record, either of them, which leads to the assumption that the woman would have been the leader of the attack team.
Speculation to link these three suspects to some organized crime organization has not been long in coming; however, the only confirmed information is that they are detained as allegedly responsible for the attack in Mexicali, a blow to public peace that, although there were no citizens directly attacked, it came to break the relative calm that was lived.
It was also announced that 300 soldiers arrived in Tijuana, the State Government shared a video on social networks where Governor Marina del Pilar Avila Olmeda is seen welcoming military elements, the arrival of this contingent, to reinforce surveillance operations, seeking to locate and arrest more suspects involved in the simultaneous attacks.
In Baja California State Government as well as in the affected municipalities, communication has flowed slowly and dosed through videos and press releases; there has not been a press conference where the Governor, the State Attorney, the Mayors and directors of the cities Police Departments, answer the questions of the media.
Octavio Sandoval, leader of the Business Sector in COPARMEX Mexicali, demanded that all levels of Government, widely report on the detainees and the reasons for the simultaneous attacks on Friday, August 12, and asked for certainty so that people can resume their normal activities on Monday August 15.
Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada and Mexicali, remained almost “dead” without any activity and many businesses closed due to fear of new attacks, the arrival of 300 soldiers was an announcement made by the State Government and there are images of Marina del Pilar greeting them as they were getting off the plane in Tijuana.
What’s next? What is the next step for the authorities? The 17 detainees are, estimating to be about a quarter of what could have been the total number of domestic terrorists, grouped in cells that hit the public peace in simultaneous and coordinated attacks, so there are still more than 50 people out there, who participated in the attacks and could be preparing a “second wave”.
