Fighting Mexico's Crime with Small Business Loans Monica Ortiz Uribe - PRI's The World
go to original January 4, 2014

Children practice tae kwon do at an after school program in Cuidad Juárez, funded by the Merida Initiative. (Monica Órtiz Uribe)

Here's something you don't see every day: a backyard welding shop staffed by a husband, his wife and their two college-aged kids.

"The day starts with me cutting the material over here,” says Sonia Chavez, an impressive 20 year-old. She handles an electric saw like a butter knife. The slender steel/iron beams she slices will become window frames and storm doors. "I cut the materials, then my mom and my dad assemble it. And when it's all done, my brother paints and then we go deliver the stuff."

A series of micro loans made this business possible. The extra cash helped the Chavez family build a roof over their outdoor workshop and invest in better machinery that cut their electric bill in half. The business, in turn, helped keep Sonia and her brother off the streets during the worst years of drug violence.

The local non-profit that finances these loans receives money from the US government through the Merida Initiative — a $1.9 billion dollar aid package between the US, Mexico and Central America. One of their goals is to counteract organized crime with economic opportunity.

Read the rest at PRI's The World

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