Tijuana: Human Heads Thrown into Voting Locations, Ballot Boxes Burned on Election Day

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

Left: A Villa Fontana voting location burns. Right: Human remains are left at a Terrazas de Valle voting location. 

June 6, 2021 was considered to be the largest midterm election in Mexico’s history. Such an unprecedented election brought out truly unprecedented acts of voter suppression. This came in the form of unapologetic displays of intimidation, destruction and gore by criminal elements at polling locations for the sole purpose of preventing citizens from voting.

At least 88 politicians have been killed in Mexico since last September and dozens of hopeful candidates have been the victims of violence during this campaign season. And election day was not the end to the violence, as voters now became the victims of gruesome acts. In particular, the city of Tijuana, in Baja California was witness to some of the most horrific attacks on voting locations. What follows occurred entirely in the city of Tijuana.

9:00 AM 

Neighborhood: Terrazas de Valle

Street: Hacienda Las Palmeras, near Hacienda Santa Monica Street

A man entered the voting location and approached the table where the ballot boxes were sitting. The man was described as wearing a white and green plaid shirt. The man placed a white cardboard box with green and blue stripes on the table while saying “They send them to you,” to the polling officials nearby, then he quickly ran away from the location. 

The box he had left was originally for plastic syringes, although it seemed to have been repurpose for other means. When officials opened the box, they discovered that inside the box was a human head. Officials alerted law enforcement who cordoned off the area with crime scene tape. The voting at this location had to be immediately suspended.

9:40 AM 

Neighborhood: Terrazas de Valle

Street: Paseo de Las Águilas Sur 25, near Hacienda Santa Monica Street

Two suspicious black garbage bags were discovered by neighbors who reported them to police. The municipal police officers arrived on scene and found that inside the bags were human remains. These remains were placed less than 100 meters away from the ballot boxes of voting location 1431. This voting location was right in front of a secondary school called the Misioneros de Baja California.

Unlike at the previous voting location, the remains at 1431 were able to be cordoned off for the forensic team without requiring the voting to be suspended due to their distance from the ballot boxes.

10:00 AM

Neighborhood: Terrazas de Valle

Street: Paseo de la Lomas Ave, near Paseo de La Torres

Multiple subjects arrived at voting location 1432 in a white compact vehicle. One of the individuals entered the polling tent carrying a wooden box while shouting out threats. He then placed the box on the table right next to the gubernatorial ballot box. He rejoined the other subjects who all quickly re-entered their vehicle and drove away. 

Inside the wooden box was reportedly a human head, two hands and two feet. According to El Sol de Tijuana, when a poll worker first approached the box and peered inside they were so shocked by the contents that they fainted. The poll worker received medical attention from Red Cross paramedics and they are reported to be in stable condition. This polling location had to suspend all voting in order to let the forensic team collect and process evidence.

12:00 PM

Neighborhood: Mariano Matamoros

Street: Montealban Street, near Las Torres Ave

Tijuana Municipal Police received a report that the body was found on the corner of Las Torres Avenue and Montealban Street in the Mariano Matamoros neighborhood of Tijuana. When they arrived at the location, which is behind a shopping center, they sighted a white foam cooler placed on the sidewalk near the busy street. A human head was found inside. Personnel from the State Attorney General's Office went to the scene to begin the investigation. There were no voting locations within the immediate area. 

12:40 PM

Neighborhood: El Dorado Residencial

Street: Campeche Street, near Domingo Ariata street 

Only fifteen meters away from the tent of voting location 1384, a suspicious black suitcase was discovered. Once police were alerted to the suitcase by an observant civilian, they opened it to discover another human head. It is not reported when or how the suitcase arrived in the polling area. No further details on this discovery.

4:45 PM

Neighborhood: Urbi Villas del Prado

Street: Privada Roca Street, near Carita de Dios migrant shelter

According to witnesses who were present at voting location 1903, several men who were dressed in black, wearing hoods and armed with firearms arrived at the tent and burned the ballot boxes on the tables.

5:40 PM Neighborhood: Mariano Matamoros

Street: Boulevard Manuel Jesús Clouthier, near Josefa Ortiz Street

Unknown persons arrived at the voting booth number 1154 and set fire to the location. Social media users who witnessed the event report that Molotov cocktails were used by the aggressors in order to start the fire. A civilian bystander was injured by the flames and had to receive medical attention. No further details.

1154 casilla tiraron una bomba molotov. Ni una sol patrulla en Tijuana. pic.twitter.com/CFALwhcrnO

— JOUSIN PALAFOX (@JousinPalafox) June 7, 2021

'

6:00 PM

Neighborhood: Villa Fontana

Street: Boulevard Cucapah, near Paseo Villa Fontana Street

A blue Ford Explorer SUV arrived near voting boxes number 1560 which was located in the parking lot of a Calimax, which is a local grocery store chain. Men dressed in black, wearing hoods piled out of the SUV and approached the tent, throwing incendiary bottles of gasoline. The people inside the polling tent ran in different directions, fleeing the area for safety's sake. At first, the men appeared to target the ballot boxes specifically. Once the boxes were burned, they indiscriminately threw the bottles at the tables and chairs under the tent. The whole voting setup went up in flames.

The aggressors escaped the area afterwards however two suspects were later found in the Villa Fontana park and arrested in connection to this crime.

#InformandoParaTi #AztecaNoticiasBC | Incendian casilla 1560 en una plaza comercial de la colonia Villa Fontana. pic.twitter.com/opnlsln1fX

— Daniel Andrade (@DanielAndradeBC) June 7, 2021

Sources: ZETA Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Punto Norte Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, El Imparcial Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Alfredo Alvarez Article 1, Article 2, El Sol de Tijuana Article 1, Article 2