Tourism official declares Tijuana safe as ‘Latin Fury’ fight nears
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Bob Arum started the conference call by saying he wanted to address concerns of media members who wondered about staging Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.‘s next ‘Latin Fury’ fight in Tijuana, which the State Department has warned U.S. citizens about visiting in a recent travel advisory.
‘Robberies, homicides, petty thefts and carjackings have all increased over the last year across Mexico generally, with notable spikes in Tijuana and northern Baja California,’ Times reporter Ken Ellingwood wrote of the alert earlier this month. Indeed, in a front-page story today, The Times noted beheadings and bodies ‘dissolved in barrels of lye’ in and near Tijuana.
Sorry, I hear that and I think most might pause before crossing from ‘America’s Finest City,’ San Diego, to a place where decapitations are happening.
Arum, a promoter, talked up how Chavez’s March 28 bout against Argentina’s Luciano Cuello was in a ‘tremendous’ 22,000-seat bullring a mere 15-minute cab ride from the border, near the coast. Humberto Soto also has a title defense on the card, and Mexico’s popular Jose Luis Castillo will fight Coachella’s Antonio Diaz.
‘We have information from the authorities that Tijuana is a very safe place,’ Arum proclaimed.
Baja California Secretary of Tourism Oscar Escobedo, whose nephew was killed by violence in the country, added that the city ‘is a very nice and safe place to visit,’ pointing to a recent San Diego Union-Tribune story that found the city was safer in 2008 than in the two previous years.
Getting to the fight is easy, Escobedo said, with travel on ‘a safeguarded road’ and cellphone access to 911 emergency responders and more than 200 bilingual public safety volunteers patrolling 16 different points. Escobedo said Tijuana attracts 17 million U.S. tourists a year, and ‘so many return home safely after enjoying their time here.... I want to assure you Tijuana and Baja California are safe.’
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos said the boxing show is an opportunity ‘to show the real face of our city, a peaceful city with hard-working men.’ Arum’s Tijuana representative, Fernando Beltran, talked of wanting to ‘deliver a message’ of safety. Ramos went further to maintain that during his 14-month term in office, ‘no tourists have been hurt or had a bad experience with crime. That’s a hard fact.’
Tickets are available through the city of Tijuana.
-- Lance Pugmire
