ROSARITO BEACH—This popular tourist destination plans to continue its successful volunteer “Greeter” program this year and is seeking additional volunteers to help staff tourist information booths beginning Memorial Day weekend

“The program will be similar to the one used very successfully by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau,” said Rosarito Convention & Visitors Bureau (COTUCO) President Laura Wong.

“Since most of our visitors are from the U.S., we’re especially interested in volunteers from Rosarito’s large expatriate community, but the program is open to anyone who speaks English well.”

About 20 people volunteered as greeters last year and they will be contacted again this year, but additional help is needed. People interested in being volunteer greeters should contact COTUCO manager Jesus Santos at 661-612-0396; or jesus@rosarito.org,

Two information booths will be set up this year, one on Boulevard Benito Juarez in downtown Rosarito and another in Puerto Nuevo,

“We’re looking for people who enjoy meeting and helping others and have several hours a month they would like to donate,” Wong said.

Charly Kimm, president of the Cruz Roja volunteers, and Anne Hines, president of the United Society of Baja California, have expressed interest in helping recruit volunteers.

“About 14,000 U.S. citizens live in Rosarito,” Wong said. “The success of groups such as Cruz Roja and the USBC show they have the desire to be strongly involved with the community. We hope this program will be one more excellent outlet for them.”

The visitor centers would provide information, assistance and might eventually expand to include other services for visitors and U.S, residents of Rosarito.

“Rosarito has more than one million visitors a year,” Wong said. “We want to provide them the best information and assistance possible, so that their stay here will be a wonderful one,”

Potential volunteers will be interviewed and those selected will receive training. A full-time (COTUCO) staff member will manage the program.

Three Mexican police chiefs have requested political asylum in the United States as violence escalates in the Mexican drug wars and spills across the border, a top U.S. Homeland Security official told The Associated Press.

In the past few months, the police officials have shown up at the U.S. border, fearing for their lives, according to Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

“They’re basically abandoned by their police officers or police departments in many cases,” Mr. Ahern told AP.

Mr. Ahern said the Mexican officials — whom he didn’t name — are being interviewed and their cases are under review for possible asylum.

In the most recent high-level assassination, a top-ranking official on a local Mexican police force was shot more than 50 times and killed. Drug-related violence killed more than 2,500 people last year alone in Mexico.

“It’s almost like a military fight,” Mr. Ahern said Tuesday. “I don’t think that generally the American public has any sense of the level of violence that occurs on the border.”

As the cartels fight for territory, this carnage spills over to the U.S., Mr. Ahern said — from bullet-ridden people stumbling into U.S. territory, to rounds of ammunition coming across U.S. entry ports.

U.S. humvees retrofitted with steel mesh over the glass windows patrol parts of the border to protect agents against guns shots and large rocks regularly thrown at them. At times agents are pinned down by sniper fire as people try to illegally cross into the U.S.

Mexico’s drug cartels have long divided the border, with each controlling key cities. But over the past decade Mexico has arrested or killed many of the gangs’ top leaders, creating a power vacuum and throwing lucrative drug routes up for the taking.

President Felipe Calderon, who took office in December, 2006, responded by deploying more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to areas where the government had lost control. Cartels have reacted with unprecedented violence, beheading police and killing soldiers.

In general, violence along the U.S. border has gone up over the years. Seven front-line border agents were killed in 2007, and two so far in 2008. Assaults against officers have also shot up from 335 in fiscal 2001 to 987 in fiscal 2007.

There have been 362 assaults against officers during the first four months of 2008, according to Border Patrol statistics. The pattern has been that when more security resources are deployed along the U.S. border, violence against officers spike in response.

Most assaults are along the San Diego and Calexico, Calif., border, as well as the Arizona border near Yuma and south of Tucson.

Now, about 14,000 U.S. border agents work on the southern border, up from more than 9,000 in 2001.

The Bush administration has requested $500-million to fight drug crime in Mexico. Congress is currently considering the proposal.

The fishing boat Pelican, missing since Thursday with an Oceanside couple on board, was found washed up on the beach near Rosarito last night, right in front of the Baja Del Mar development. No one was on board. The fate of Josh Hartman and his fiancee, identified by authorities as Ana Martin, is unknown.

The photos below (shot by my friends Hilda and Rafael from their balcony), show the vessel, beached at Baja Del Mar, 21 miles south of the border.

Coast Guard Lt. Jeremy Denning in San Diego said he got word about 8:15 p.m. from a television station in Baja California that a boat that appeared to be the Pelican had washed ashore north of Rosarito.

The Mexican navy towed the vessel to an Ensenada marina. Denning said a Coast Guard investigator would be heading there to look over the boat. The 32-foot fishing boat registration numbers matched those of the Pelican.

Denning said a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft, which had been searching the ocean from Los Angeles to the Mexican border, would be called off.

This event will take place Saturday, May 17 from 12:00 noon to 10:00 p.m. on the street José Cerda in the colony Burócrata Ruiz Cortinez, Tijuana

Admission is free, and if you like typical Mexican art, and crafts in general, you will love it. We certainly have a great time at events like this (don’t forget to bring your camera!)
There will be:

Visual arts and crafts expositions
Food booths from distinguished restaurants in Tijuana
Wine tasting from Valley Guadelupe wineries
Live musical show: African rhythms, dance, Contemporary Jazz,
Latin Jazz, Rock, Blues, Rock, Classical Piano, Fusion-Classical Contemporary and Opera
Special Masks and Costumes representing the Venice Carnival

In order to provide security and comfort Defenders of Art guarantees:
Parking guarded by security personnel
Ambulance and patrol exclusively for the event
Port-o-potties
Waste containers strategically located
Transportation available for visitors from San Diego, Los Angeles and Palm Springs by Mexicoach. (www.mexicoach.com) from San Ysidro and Old Town.
For further info call (664) 682-3808; e-mail: asalcido@transformarte.org ; cell from San Diego (858)349-6088

Art & Culture in Rosarito - Press Release from the Mayor’s Office:

As the city’s newly elected administration works hard to improve the city, it hasn’t forgotten about the importance of arts and culture.

Mayor Hugo Torres, who took office in December, is a strong supporter of the arts and understands its importance to the community. Arts have always been a strong part of the Mexican culture the city should honor its heritage with special attention to this sector.

Rocio Hoffman was recently elected as president of the newly formed AMAR, the Association del Movimiento Artistico de Rosarito, the Artist Action Association of Rosarito. Rosarito Beach has a thriving artist colony, estimated to be about ten years old, with several hundred artists of different types living here now.

Some of them are full-time, making their living as an artist while others are part-time, doing other work to supplement their income while cultivating their craft and building a following. “The art community is definitely getting more organized and growing significantly each year,” said Hoffman.

“As for artists working in paint or plastic, we have at least seventy who make their living with their artwork,” Hoffman said. “And there are many composers, musicians and writers, probably four hundred now living in Rosarito,” she went on to say.

Hoffman’s goal as president of AMAR is to create the best artist community in Mexico and feels that Rosarito Beach has something that no other community in all of Mexico can offer: geographic location. To take advantage of that fact, she plans on having two big art festivals every year, each lasting two days and attracting thousands of American as well as Mexican tourists.

“Plans in are in the works to create an international art committee with San Diego which will raise awareness and give the community the recognition and respect that it deserves,” Hoffman stated.

In the community there are 12 major fine art galleries representing artists like Ugi, Juan Angel Castillo, Jorge Luna, Francisco Cabello, Miguel Nigera, Angel Valera, Manuel Lizarraga Garibaldi and David Silva, to mention just a few. These galleries all help to create a unique and wonderful artistic ambiance.

Condominium developments, which occupy much of the landscape now, are one of the best markets for art. New owners are investing in local artists for their new homes and at least one development features original art as part of the sales price.

Many of the art buyers from the US are shocked to see how inexpensive much of the artwork here is when compared to the prices they are used to seeing across the border, sometimes one-fifth the price, Hoffman said. They can purchase an original oil or acrylic for the cost of a limited edition litho in America.

“And here, people can get to know the artist much easier than other places; they are more receptive and open to allowing people to become a part of their lives,” says Hoffman who also does portraitures of both people, emphasizing on the eyes, and pets.

The city also has a cultural committee, headed by Luz Del Carmen Calderon, which is responsible for organizing concerts and other cultural events throughout the year.

MY OPINION

Sorry to say, but I would take anything that the Hugo Torres, new Rosarito Beach’s mayor say with a grain of salt. We all know that he owns several large condominium buildings in Rosarito and he’s been trying to make the city look great in an effort for his sales to pick up. To the point that a year ago if you opened an Ecos de Rosarito newspaper (owned by Hugo Torres) you would find a few crimes in every issue. But now that he is mayor, miraculously there has been a crime posted on the tabloid for months… please don’t tell me that now the city of Rosarito Beach is the safest in all of Mexico!

In an attempt to increase safety in the streets of Tijuana, a new law was put in effect on May 3rd that keeps vehicles from having tinted windows. As a result, 496 automobiles were stopped all over the city, and their owners agreed to have the tinting removed. Other 22 vehicles were also stopped and sent to the impound lot for not having tags or circulation papers.

Alberto Capella Ibarra, Public Safety secretary in Tijuana, said that this law will help decrease the amount of crimes that take place in town, since most of them involve vehicles with polarized windows.

In my opinion, what they need is the death penalty imposed to drug dealers. After the first couple of them actually get it and fry for their crimes, you’ll see a much lower crime incidence in Tijuana. But then again, that’s probably why they will never make me president of Mexico!

Looking for fun in Baja? Come join us this Saturday May 24th on a great UTV ride, the brand new Side By Side, starting and finishing in Rosarito Beach, right at the FORD Dealership, located just before the first entrance to downtown Rosarito on the free road. From there we’re heading all the way to Hacienda Santa Veronica in Tecate, for a great Lunch and then back to Rosarito Beach.

A total of 150 miles of pure Baja fun awaits you in this great ride. Starting in Rosarito, heading out towards the Mountains, through some of the Ejidos Private Properties (we have permission for ONE TIME pass only) then out to the back lands, with beautiful scenery, and some water crossings. Make sure you bring your camera. Should take us about 4 hours each way, so a total of 8 hours enjoying the unspoiled beauty of Baja.

The leaders will make sure we regroup every time there’s a split, or leave a trace to where the course goes. There’s two sections of highway crossing, one for less than a 1/4 mile and the second for about 3 miles, there will be two official stops, one for drinks and the other to re-fuel if needed (announce at drivers meeting) this is both, back and forth.

The half way point is the beautiful facilities of Hacienda Santa Veronica, that will cater a delicious Carne Asada and some cold refreshing drinks.
The ride back, will leave at 3PM to arrive in Rosarito around 7PM.

You must bring:

1) Your own UTV Vehicle (Side By Side). Make sure your lights work!!
If you’re interested in renting a UTV (Side by Side), you can rent one at www.academyrentals.com or call Chris Spounias @ (619) 294 22 27, and figure out the details directly with him.
2) A 5 gallon gas can!!!
3) A spare tire and patches or fix a flat.
4) Basic Tools
5) First Aid Kit.
6) A camel back or water.
7) TOW ROPE (just in case)
And last but not least HELMET AND PROTECTIVE GEAR!!!