Security Improves in Mexico's 'Murder City' Chris Arsenault - Al Jazeera | |
go to original August 8, 2012 |
The mayor of Juarez thinks drug legalisation could only work if it were to be adopted globally. (Reuters)
Juarez, Mexico - Luis Alvarez slams his fist on the table of a posh hotel restaurant in Juarez when he overhears a discussion on drug violence in the city. "Why do they call us the most violent city in the world?" he shouts, as other guests look up from their huevos rancheros and fruit plates. "We are a centre of culture; we have more hotel rooms than El Paso."
Alvarez was referring to the Texan city that sits just across the border from Juarez, but is light years away in terms of reputation. Known as Mexico's murder capital, a 2009 study deemed Juarez "the world’s most violent city". Security has improved since the peak of the violence, but entrepreneurs, government officials and tourist operators, including Alvarez, are having a tough time convincing the outside world to visit.
"The city is quieter than it was a year and a half ago," construction foreman Isiaj Isaias told Al Jazeera, as his builders refurbished a formerly abandoned downtown nightclub. In decades past, Juarez, a city of about 1.5 million people, was famous for its bars, restaurants and nightspots - before violence scared the tourists away.
Some of the major international news headlines about the city from 2010 include "Juarez - murder capital of the world", "Americans killed in drive-by shooting at Consulate in Ciudad Juarez" and "decapitated head found on pillow in Juarez". El Diario, the local newspaper of record, wrote an editorial calling cartels the "de facto authority" in the city after several journalists were murdered.
Since 2010, things have improved. Killings by criminal gangs in Juarez fell by 42 per cent - down to 952 deaths - in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period of 2011, which saw 1,642 killings, said Mexican General Emilio Zarate in July.
Across Mexico, more than 55,000 people have died in drug related violence since December 2006, and the border region has been at the epicentre of this carnage. "The major problem of this frontier is that our neighbourhood makes us a transit point for drugs," Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, spokesman for the Chihuahua state government, told Al Jazeera. "The US has a big hunger for drugs and we have a lot of problems because of that."
Read more at Al Jazeera
We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!
From activities like hiking, swimming, bike riding and yoga, to restaurants offering healthy menus, Vallarta-Nayarit is the ideal place to continue - or start - your healthy lifestyle routine.