Ciudad Juarez Returns: Is Mexico's Most Dangerous City Finally Recovering? Oscar Lopez - Latin Times
go to original December 22, 2013

A pedestrian street in the center of Ciudad Juárez, which only three years ago produced eight homicides a day and roughly a third of its population fled in a few bloody years. Schools and homes in some neighborhoods are filling again, and the city looks refreshed. (Katie Orlinsky/The New York Times)

Ciudad Juarez has long been at the center of Mexico's violent drug war. Indeed, according to the US Department of State, "Violence is an everyday occurrence in Juarez. There are no particular sections of the city to avoid as violence can occur anywhere, anytime." While clearly the city of 1.5 million remains a troubled spot in Mexico's drug cartel terrain, a new report from the New York Times suggests that the border town may at last be on the road to recovery from it's violent past as the fulcrum of the war between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels.

Ciudad Juarez was once known as "ground zero in Mexico's war on drugs" and "one of the most murderous cities in the world." Hyperbole like these were well justified during the height of the city's crime binge. Indeed, some 3,111 murders were reported in 2010. However, these numbers have been steadily falling in recent years. In 2011, murders dropped to 1,900 and last year, that number dropped again to just 730. And while these numbers are still frightening, it does indicate that at least there is hope for Ciudad Juarez' future.

Read the rest at Latin Times

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