Tag Archives: Tijuana

S.D., Baja officials working on tourist-friendly police force

October 6, 2009

By Leslie Berestein
Union-Tribune Staff Writer

Police Training

Police Training

SAN DIEGO – City officials in San Diego and Baja California are drafting a plan for San Diego cops to train a bilingual, tourist-friendly police force that would work south of the border.

The idea, announced Monday at San Diego City Hall, is to create a unit called the Metropolitan Police to patrol the tourist corridor between Tijuana and Ensenada and points farther south. Officers from the police departments of Tijuana, Rosarito Beach and Ensenada, and possibly the state police, would be trained in how to better interact with visitors.

The hope is to create a stronger sense of security for tourists, business visitors and others who travel to the region, officials said, and restore Baja California’s battered tourist economy in the wake of drug violence that has caused many businesses dependent on visitors to close.

“If they come down here and see what is happening, they will change the perception they have,” said Hugo Torres, mayor of Rosarito Beach. The city already has a tourist police unit composed of close to 30 municipal officers.

Unlike the tourist police, the new unit will perform the bulk of its work along Baja’s Highway 1, said Cesar Santiesteban, secretary of public safety for Ensenada. The training with San Diego police would enable the Mexican cops to learn “how American police think, how American police work,” Torres said. read more »

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Medical In Baja

October 4, 2009

By Lana Jordan Juvinall,
AMPI Realtor, Rosarito Board of Realtors
Originally posted on the Baja Times

Medical Care in Baja

Medical Care in Baja

A Surgery Store in Mexico
Many Americans come to Mexico for medical services and many fear medical services in Mexico. I know numerous stories of the incredible medical care in Baja and I would like to share a couple.

I, personally, am living testament to the outstanding and inexpensive medical service in Mexico. Four years ago I was run over by a car. The accident broke the fibula and tibia in my right leg completely in half, my head was split when I was thrown and my ribs, shoulder and left hand were run over.

The ambulance arrived within 15 minutes with totally professional medics putting my leg together and checking my injuries and vital signs. They phoned ahead to Excel Hospital in Tijuana and, when I arrived, two orthopedic surgeons were awaiting me. I was taken immediately into x-ray where they x-rayed my entire body. Then the surgeons sewed my head, reset my leg and poured a half cast.

I was placed in a private room, with an extra bed for my husband. There were ten rooms on the floor, all monitored by TV cameras to the central nursing station which, in addition to the nurses, had a 24-hr. doctor. Daily the walls and floors were cleaned with an antiseptic to avoid chance of staph infection. The surgeons chose to delay surgery one day to make sure of no internal injuries. A titanium plate and 8 screws were installed in my leg. The doctors were wonderful, competent and caring, as were the floor doctor, staff and nurses. The staff from the front desk even accommodated me by bringing phone messages to my room when my line was busy.

The total cost for my 4-day, 3-night stay was $12,000 USD, including surgeons, anesthesiologist, operating room, private room and doctor’s care for the next year. My American Blue Cross paid half. read more »

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It’s wine festival time on La Ruta del Vino

August 12, 2009

Written By: Omar Millán Gonález

It’s wine festival time on La Ruta del Vino

It’s wine festival time on La Ruta del Vino

VALLE DE GUADALUPE, Baja California — One hour south of Tijuana, there’s a magical place that for 120 years has captured the flavor of this land.

It’s called La Ruta del Vino (The Wine Route), a road that starts in El Sauzal, outside of Ensenada, and connects to the valleys of Guadalupe, San Antonio de las Minas and Calafia, wine-producing regions where almost 250 producers grow grapes.

In these valleys, and in San Vicente and the Valley of Santo Tomás, 27 miles south of Ensenada, 126 million liters of wine are produced every year. They represent 90 percent of the table wines produced in Mexico, according to Sistema Producto Vid, an association of wine producers in the region.

The bucolic landscape is beautiful year-round, but in August, the grape harvest begins and all the local producers stage their harvest festivals. The area becomes a constant party, revolving around wine. There are wine contests, dancing, grand banquets, concerts, bullfights and guide tours of the wineries the vineyards.

Santo Tomás, founded in 1888, and LA Cetto, founded in 1930, are the oldest vineyards in the region, and their wines have reached countries with long oenological traditions, including France and Italy. read more »

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Baja California, Mexico: Impact of U.S. Media, an Analysis

July 11, 2009

Prepared by Scott Hanning and Jeffrey Werner, Emerson Strategic Communication Group

Baja California, Mexico: Impact of U.S. Media, an Analysis

Baja California, Mexico: Impact of U.S. Media, an Analysis

Executive Summary: Through selective reporting, presenting information without context and insufficient analysis, U.S. media outlets have helped perpetuate the mistaken perception that Mexico, including all of Baja California, is a “drug war crisis zone” unsafe for visitors.  The net result is the conflation of President Felipe Calderón’s campaign against the drug cartels with tourism in the minds of millions of ordinary Americans, who have chosen to travel elsewhere or stay home.  Media coverage of the drug war crisis has thus spawned a second, equally urgent one: Rosarito Beach’s economy, like those of other areas almost entirely dependent on American tourism, has suffered a devastating revenue decline of more than 75%.

Rosarito Beach and Baja California’s other coastal towns have for decades been a popular destination for U.S. tourists.  Their economies are largely dependent on American tourism, especially road-trip vacationers from southern California and the Southwest U.S.  The region also has a high number of permanent American residents: an estimated 14,000 Americans (nearly 10% of the population) make Rosarito their home today.  These communities’ fortunes are therefore directly linked to how Americans view them. read more »

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‘Men at work’ build homes in Mexico

May 31, 2009
‘Men at work’ build homes in Mexico

‘Men at work’ build homes in Mexico

By Teresa Howell
For The Signal

First Presbyterian Church, in Newhall, sends group of volunteers to Tijuana on mission trip.

Sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church of Newhall, six men left on their Amor Ministries trip April 24 and returned April 27.

Characterizing the all-male work group as “the finishers,” John Favalessa, one of six, said, “It was the best trip ever. We finished three homes. We hand-mixed stucco and applied two full coats to one home and one coat of stucco to two homes. Now three families have snug, warm homes. The roofs and walls are solid and do not leak.”

Don Trammell, the group’s leader, explained they were among the first groups heading for Tijuana after spring break to work. According to Trammell, Amor took thousands of eager, inexperienced youth volunteers over spring break and threw them into starting as many homes as they can. read more »

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Health-care challenged Californians flocking to Mexico

May 28, 2009

The pharmacy business in Tijuana is still booming, despite crackdowns by the state to weed out illegitimate operators. - John Gibbins / Union-Tribune

By Keith Darcé, Union-Tribune Staff Writer

TIJUANA — About 1 million adult Californians seek health care in Mexico each year – and that figure is likely growing as the recession expands the ranks of the uninsured who are drawn to cheaper care south of the border, said the lead researcher of the first major report on the topic released Tuesday.

These people live from the Bay Area to San Diego County. Most come to Mexico for prescription drugs and dental care, and a smaller number go for surgeries. Beyond finances, other factors prompting individuals to head south include language and cultural barriers.

Living within 15 miles of the border also greatly increases the likelihood of someone obtaining health services in Mexico. read more »

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Baja California State Goverments Approves 15 million USD Credit to Local Developers

May 1, 2009
Rosarito Beach Looking North

Rosarito Beach Looking North

Due to the approval of a 220 million pesos credit (around 15 million USD) for the development of Rosarito Beach, local developers are expected to get the benefits of the grants, this was said in Tijuana by Sebastian Lanz Paredes, President of the CMIC: Cámara Mexicana de la Industria de la Construcción (Mexican Chamber of the Development Industry).

During the session of the CMIC Rosarito Beach Major, Hugo Torres Chabert, stated that the main development projects for this year will be the construction of the Poliduct Boulevard, which will connect Rosarito with La Mesa, in Tijuana.

Torres Chabert added that with the Baja California State Congress approval of the 220 million pesos credit, Rosarito will put pavement into a total of 158 streets. The CMIC expects that its members could obtain the grants and help support the local industry. read more »

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