Today It's a City on the Mend, But Wounds of Violence Still Scar Juarez Steve Inskeep - NPR.org
go to original March 26, 2014

A few years ago, Juarez was known as the bloodiest battlefield in the drug war, where people were killed by the thousands and even dismembered. Today it's a city on the mend. (Kainaz Amaria/NPR)

We had just finished our time in Juarez, Mexico, when we had dinner with some distant relations on the U.S. side of the border. "You," one of my relatives said, "are the first Juarez survivors we've seen in some time."

He said this even though he lives within sight of Juarez, in El Paso, just across the Rio Grande. Many people on the U.S. side long ago stopped visiting their Mexican sister city, and not without reason: Juarez was the world's most violent city as recently as 2010. That year it suffered more than 3,000 murders, many of them apparently related to a fight to control the drug trade. (El Paso reported five homicides that year.)

But perception may have outlasted reality. Total homicides in Juarez fell below 500 last year, still outrageously high but a significant improvement. What does it feel like today to walk the streets of this city with its terrifying reputation? We spent several days composing a portrait of life in Juarez. Think of the portrait as a triptych, with three scenes.

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