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We're on the edge of Tijuana here. This is a patrol of the border. Now, they run these patrols a few times a week in order to deter people from smuggling either people, drugs, or into Mexico, guns. So, we're headed to the border with Mexico. It's right up there. Mexico is under unprecedented pressure to tackle its cartels. With President Trump having threatened tariffs, deployed troops, and floated military strikes within Mexico. The cartels are waging war on America and it's time for America to wage war on the cartels which we are doing. Mexican officials in turn say they are enacting an unprecedented crackdown to crush the gangs yet it still seems like they are in charge. So what's the reality? Is Mexico cracking down? Are
they winning the battle? To find out, we embedded with the Mexican National Guard in Tijuana and headed along the border. We ended up on a tour that went from the frightening to the absurd to understand this strange border war. Come with us to Tijana. Just crossed the border. We're now heading through Tijana uh toward Tcate, one of the border cities. Initially, we thought we were just going to cross the border and take a taxi, but the uh Mexican army has hooked us up with personal ride. We got the threec car convoy, traveling security. We're headed out of Tijana right now. This whole drive, it's a combination of these factories, the makiadoras that make stuff to export to America. and in between them uh a lot of like slums and
that kind of stuff. It's a superstar contrast with what you see on the San Diego side. So right now we're like an hour and a half east of Tijana. The border is right there. We could see the wall in the distance. And here it's a military checkpoint. So we're waiting here for the National Guard to come meet us to take us out into the area around here. There are two different military organizations operating here. There's the Mexican Army and then the Guardian Nasal or National Guard who we'll meet later. Here, an Army colonel showed us around the last checkpoint on the Mexican Highway from Mexico City to Tijana and San Diego. So, it seems like we're might be getting a little bit of the uh
controlled narrative situation here. Before all the trucks were going through and now since they started giving us a little tour here with the colonel, they've been stopping a bunch of trucks. I'd be pretty pissed if I were these guys cuz they're all being held up now because of us. They're allegedly reviewing all the trucks that are passing through here. Although he said they don't often find drugs and it's kind of hard to imagine there's not a huge amount of drugs coming through here. This is the main road from Mexico City to Tijuana and then to San Diego. This is interesting because they are checking these trucks. But yeah, our hunch is that they're
checking more of the trucks because uh we're here behind us. A lot of people there's a lot of people taking pictures with the Mexican government, the Mexican military right now. Right now, I count four different cameras and a video camera uh documenting this. Now, we're headed back toward Tijuana. The one thing that's just initially clear from this visit to this check post here is that there's a lot of pressure for them to look a certain way. There's also certain questions we can ask about anything political. That could either be because they don't want to get in trouble with uh their government or Trump or just because they're in the army. We don't really know. But when you just look at this and you think about
the volume of traffic coming through here, they're clearly trying to stop it. But it's like any kind of trafficking. I mean, the amount that of work that they have to do is vast and difficult. And then when you look at the mountains and you just think, how in the world are you going to get through it? Now, if you're enjoying this video, make sure to hit that subscribe button. We are here for one reason, capture the world without bias or fear. We're going all over the place now, expanding from domestic to international. We've got a bunch of videos coming out. Make sure you don't miss them. Smash that subscribe button. Now, back to Tijana. So, this is another trafficking point on that side. Those are Americans right there talking to their Mexican
counterparts. We have coordination between American army in this time with Marines and with us. We have the same frequencies in the radio. So we can coordinate this kind of patrols. Uh this is the radio that we use for coordination with the American troops in the other side of the border. Yeah. Now that you have the military here, what difference is that? Is that better for you guys? With the army is because we are soldiers. No. So you feel more comfortable maybe. No, this US Mexico joint operation is an unprecedented level of cooperation. It would not have happened in the past. Still though, Tijana is struggling. It's one of the world's most dangerous cities and six people were killed there within a day of our visit. Few places in Mexico
have a higher murder rate. Okay, so now we're here. We're on the edge of Tijuana here. This is a patrol up the border. So over here we've got Americans. There's both border patrol and Marines. On this side we've got Mexican National Guard and Mex Mexican Army. Now they run these patrols a few times a week in order to deter people from smuggling either people, drugs or into Mexico guns back and forth across the border. So one point there was made a couple times. It's kind of interesting. You know, this is a generally stable area. You have a lot of violence, you know, street violence and stuff in Tijuana. you have some conflict between cartels, but they do these patrols all throughout Mexico, all up on the border. And in places further east,
especially along the Texas border, there's a lot more violence. These patrols are likely to come under ambush from the cartels. Not likely, but sometimes they do. Here, generally speaking, that's not the case. It's much more stable in this state, which is Baja California. stuff up there. He's got a vantage point all down the wall again. We got the Americans right over there. Behind us, in front of us are the Mexicans. Here, the Americans. thing it's just interesting to remember that on that side San Diego, one of the richest cities in America and then right here, totally different life. That's the end of the patrol. Now, a few thoughts. One is that, you know, so there's a lot of people out here.
They're really putting on a show for us. Uh the question is, is it all real? Is it not? That remains to be seen. Another thought is cost a lot of money. It's a lot of people right here, right? And then you look at the checkpoint, how many cars are coming through? How many people are coming through potentially with drugs? This is just a very small drop in the bucket of everything that is happening at the border. So, maybe one of the most shocking things we learned today, the general just told us that up there, this wall is brand new. They haven't even finished it yet. And they just started putting in these slabs over here like 6 months ago. So, until we're we're still in Tijana, I mean, we're in the city, the second
biggest city in Mexico. And this wall wasn't even there. And I asked the general, you know, why there was nothing. He said, "Well, it all changed when the caravan started coming." So, before then, it was pretty controlled. And then all of a sudden it was like the floodgates opened and they needed to do something. But the fact that here, I mean, you could go from second Mexico's second largest city. You could walk, you know, just to the edge, walk right across and you're essentially in San Diego. It's pretty wild to think about. As we go down, we can see the American construction teams coming through here.
They're putting up more sections of the wall to finalize this area, which is not yet done, which is kind of amazing. right into Tijana. The full wall is not yet done. Now, we could tell you about how intense the rest of our experience was, but you get enough [__] from news companies, so we'll be honest. We ended up on a press tour that culminated in an absurd situation. First, they took us to a traffic stop. From here they brought us to another checkpoint. Each of these people had a memorized spiel about how they were serving their country and improving security.
They may mean it and they may be doing great work, but the reality is that many Mexican people view the police and authorities as worse than the gangs. But our tour continued with the National Guard taking us to an overpass to show us their driving technique. last stop would end up being absurd. But before we got there, the officials took us to the airport to show us how the National Guard is helping. like the TSA. Finally, we ended the day in a shopping mall in downtown Tijana. We've got the full force of the Mexican military escorting us into the mall to show us how they relate to the local population. We got the Burger King.
We're going to go smoke small smoke grenade and clear the Burger King. So the general here was just telling me how this whole the whole idea here is they get to know the population, kind of socialize them. He said the most important thing the cameraman's laughing Okay. Gracias. During this report, we saw two stories, and we couldn't tell which was the real one. Was it of a serious, well equipped, and disciplined fighting force taking their country back from organized crime? Or was it a propaganda tour to impress a group of American visitors? Or maybe it was a mix, a stage tour to prove that the Mexicans were serious about defending their country? Whatever the answer, I hope for the sake of the
people in both Mexico and America that they succeed. Whatever the answer, it's clear that the situation on the border in Mexico now is different than it was a couple years ago. Thank you for watching this video. This wraps up our Southwest trip, but we have so much other content coming out, including a series from Israel and the West Bank, from the Deep South, and from Texas. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it. Thank you for watching.
