Federal police officers have installed mobile checkpoints in different parts of Guadalajara and its environs as security tightens ahead of the Pan American Games.
Roadblocks (retenes) will be in operation until the games are over at the end of October, and situated at points considered most vulnerable. These include the athletes’ village, entrances to the stadiums and sports venues, as well as the main highways leading into Guadalajara and in the games’ sub-sites, including the Lake Chapala area.
So far checkpoints in the metro area have been installed on the city beltway (periferico) intersection with Avenida Guadalupe, on Avenida Mariano Otero, between Plaza del Sol and the Expo Guadalajara (the media center for the games), and on Avenida Vallarta, by the Ciudad Granja neighborhood. Outside city limits, checkpoint have been installed on the inbound lanes of the Guadalajara-Chapala highway just past the Ocotlan intersection and on the highway to Colima near the Outlet Plazas. Several foreign residents from the lakeside area have reported being stopped and asked by officers to show vehicle documents, as well as having their cars searched.
The installation of the checkpoints on Monday caused anger and alarm among many local residents, some of whom complained the measures would further disrupt traffic.
Coordinated by federal police, the security operation also involves state and municipal elements. At each checkpoint there will be between ten and 20 personnel equipped with trucks containing gamma rays. These allow officers to detect weapons or drugs in vehicles that are reviewed.
In total, 11,000 police and armed forces will be deployed across the city, 5,000 of whom are federal agents. There will also be five helicopters (three Black Hawks and two MIs) and even unmanned drones patrolling the skies above the metropolitan area.
Visiting Guadalajara to supervise the security operation, the federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said earlier this week that so far they have received no threats to the games to be held from October 14-30.
A threat assessment report published last week by U.S. organization Stratfor Global Intelligence seemed to corroborate this statement, concluding that “the most dangerous organizations in Mexico have very little motivation or intent to hit the Pan American Games.”
However, the report also warned that “with the attention of the press turned toward Guadalajara, it would not be surprising if one or more cartel groups attempted some sort of body dump or other spectacle in Guadalajara during the games,” given the cartels’ fondness for “macabre theater in order to grab media attention.”
Moreover, despite the many security personnel on duty throughout the games, Stratfor noted that “when one considers that the Guadalajara metropolitan area contains some 4.4 million residents, and that there will be thousands of athletes and perhaps in excess of 100,000 spectators, the number of security personnel assigned to work the games is not as large as it might appear at first glance.”
During his visit, Garcia toured the command center of the Ministry of Public Security, housed in the Expo Guadalajara to monitor safety during the games. The center receives real-time video, audio and data from 650 cameras monitoring different parts of the city, Puerto Vallarta and Lagos de Moreno. The local and federal security agencies will also maintain direct communication with participating countries and even international security agencies such as Interpol.
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