Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

FACTBOX-Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city
03 Mar 2009 19:50:21 GMT
 Source: Reuters
March 3 (Reuters) - Law and order is on the brink of collapse in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican border city where a war between rival drug gangs has killed more than 2,000 people in the last year. Here are some facts about the border city.

- Situated in the desert on the Rio Grande river across from El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juarez has expanded quickly since the 1990s, with hundreds of "maquiladora" assembly plants opening to supply manufactured goods to the United States.

- Long associated with crime and corrupt police, Ciudad Juarez has seen the murders of some 400 women and girls since 1993. The killings sparked talk of a wave of "feminicide" aimed specifically at women. Despite international pressure to solve the murders, including support from writers, singers and Amnesty International, most cases remain mysteries. Theories of motives for the murders range from the presence of one or more serial killers to systematic domestic violence, organ trafficking or even the making of "snuff" movies.

- Ciudad Juarez and El Paso were once the same town, El Paso del Norte or "North Pass", until the Rio Grande river flowing through it became the national border in 1848 at the end of the U.S.-Mexican war. The Mexican half of the city was renamed after Benito Juarez, Mexico's first indigenous president and one of the country's most revered leaders.

- Ciudad Juarez is a major battleground in Mexico's drug war, as gangs from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, led by Mexico's most wanted fugitive, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, fight to take control of lucrative cocaine smuggling routes from local drug lord Vicente Carrillo.

- Residents fleeing the violence in Ciudad Juarez have been buying homes across the border in El Paso, helping keep the Texan city's property market afloat despite the worst U.S. housing crisis in decades. Many are small business owners, putting their children in schools in El Paso while they cross back into Ciudad Juarez each day to go to work. Ciudad Juarez's mayor also lives in El Paso. (Compiled by Noel Randewich; Editing by Kieran Murray)


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

NGO latest

•  HealthRight International is new name for Doctors of the World-USA
HealthRight Intl - USA

•  Five things
WV - USA

•  UMCOR Hotline for February 17, 2009
UMCOR - USA

•  UMCOR Hotline for February 10, 2009
UMCOR - USA

•  The UMCOR Hotline for February 3, 2009
UMCOR - USA

MORE >>

Latest news

•  FACTBOX-Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city

•  Mexico troops move in to retake warring border city

•  Netanyahu rules out defence post for Lieberman -source

•  Clinton pledges to press for Palestinian state

•  NATO seen moving toward normal Russia ties

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Background information

Facts & figures
Mexico United States of America

Related articles

Breaking stories
 FACTBOX-Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city (1 minute ago)

Mexico troops move in to retake warring border city (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 ANALYSIS: Global downturn to shrink climate funds for poor nations (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 HealthRight International is new name for Doctors of the World-USA (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Europe's half-hearted plan to finance climate action (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Global projected land use changes, 1700-2050 (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-03T181928Z_01_MEX55_RTRIDSP_2_MEXICO-DRUGS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MEX55.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-03T181704Z_01_MEX57_RTRIDSP_2_MEXICO-DRUGS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MEX57.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-03T175618Z_01_MEX530R_RTRIDSP_2_MEXICO-DRUGS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MEX530r.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-03T175437Z_01_MEX530_RTRIDSP_2_MEXICO-DRUGS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MEX530.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-03-03T175339Z_01_MEX520_RTRIDSP_2_MEXICO-DRUGS_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/MEX520.htm

Mexican soldiers inspect vehicles at a checkpoint at the Paso del Norte international border crossing in Ciudad Juarez March 3, 2009. Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and convoys of federal police ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Tue Mar 3 19:52:45 2009