Hugo Torres Announces His Run for Mayor to Improve the Baja City He Helped Found.

ROSARITO BEACH, Mexico -- Twelve years ago, Hugo Torres led the successful drive to incorporate Rosarito Beach and was named the first mayor of this city 18 miles south of the U.S. border.

Now, he has announced his reformist pre-candidacy for a second three-year mayoral term in the Aug. 5 election. It's his effort to help correct problems in Rosarito Beach and make it the model city he hoped it would become.

He has been chosen as the possible candidate for a coalition of parties that include the PRI, the Green and Baja California. He will oppose candidates from the PAN and the PRD parties.

Although running as the candidate of a party coalition, Torres is maintaining his status as an independent.

"I am a citizen candidate," he said. "We should have municipal elections here the way they do in the United States, with no party affiliations. They should be about what is best for the city."

Torres, the seventy year-old prominent civic leader, developer and owner of the landmark Rosarito Beach Hotel, said he had been reluctant to seek another term after finishing his first about eight years ago.

But he saw it as his civic duty to the place he led to incorporation, making it an independent city rather than a part of Tijuana. Also, many people in the community urged him to run.

"I felt that I had to because a lot of people came to me and said they could not stand the situation," Torres said. "The city did not turn out the way I had hoped. It was fine for the first years but has been deteriorating."

Torres has remained an influential figure in both Rosarito and Baja politics, as well as in the business community, where he has led efforts for real estate reform. But without actually holding office it is difficult to bring about change, he said.

Rosarito Beach has grown from about 30,000 to more than 100,000 people since becoming a city in 1995. It has become a center for development along the Baja coast and is a popular tourist area that attracts more than a million visitors a year.

Despite those positive things, the city is troubled by internal problems that include drug use, the need to strengthen and improve policing, and also to promote a better business climate that will create more jobs in Rosarito, Torres said.

Torres said his platform includes improving public security, in part through better police training and education, more accountability, plus improved salaries. He also supports use of a bilingual traffic ticket that tourists can pay by mail upon their return to the U.S.

"In the U.S., police make several thousand dollars a month and city councilmen a few hundred," Torres said concerning the police salary issue. "Here it's just about the opposite."

Torres also favors an aggressive effort to fight drug use, which he says affects 10 to 11 percent of the city population, most of whom begin using drugs while still in elementary or high school.

"We need better education efforts plus more sports and cultural activities that provide alternatives for young people," Torres said. "We do not want to become a sick city."

Torres also said more must be done to promote a strong business climate, including more aggressive enforcement of noise and other regulations in the downtown area.

"We need to continue to promote business," Torres said of the city, which depends on tourism for more than half its economy. "We want to be able to establish enough jobs to keep all of the people of Rosarito here."

Torres also said laws must be better enforced. He cited as an example dangerous street racing which has been occurring in the Popotla section of the city for more than a year, and which city authorities have failed to stop, despite hundreds of complaints.

"We need to make sure that all laws are applied and equally so," Torres said.

Torres also said his campaign would strictly adhere to campaign spending limits. He is running with a slate that includes five possible council candidates. Three are also running as independents.

They include Rosa Maria Plascencia, owner of the Puerto Nuevo II restaurant; furniture maker Rafael Crosthwaite; Jose Luis Ibarra, an attorney who was president of the cityhood committee; and Jose Cipres Tinoco, president of the Baja California party.