Americans Told to Shelter-in-Place as Tijuana Burns

Chaos has erupted across Tijuana and is spreading following the eruption of cartel wars near the U.S. border. Now, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico has issued a shelter-in-place warning for employees and citizens in the area.

The U.S. Consulate General Tijuana is aware of reports of multiple vehicle fires, roadblocks, and heavy police activity in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate. U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place until further notice.

According to the NY Post, this all started with gang wars at a prison:

The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana warned the public and government employees to avoid the area and seek shelter as violence and unrest erupted. The U.S. Consulate tweeted that vehicles are being set ablaze, roadblocks are being set up, and there is heavy police activity occurring in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate.

At this time, all U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place.

The violence began on Thursday in a Ciudad Juarez prison when the Sinaloa Cartel, formerly led by infamous Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and Los Mexicles began feuding, leading to a riot that left two dead and 16 injured, according to the Times of San Diego. The violence then spread out of the prison and into the city streets of Juarez, where gang members killed an additional nine people, most of them civilians.

This does not appear to be random, uncoordinated violence.

Narco attack on the U.S. border. The cartels carried out simultaneous attacks in Tijuana, Mexicali, and Tecate. pic.twitter.com/q3YVj9Dqn4

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 13, 2022

Could this be more than a spontaneous war between cartels? Is there something else happening behind the scenes that could cause this eruption of violence to spread into the United States?