Ciudad Juárez

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Ciudad Juárez Juárez
Seal
Nickname(s): Gateway of Mexico, Paso del Norte, ciudad por el Río Grande, Juarezity, Juaritos
Ciudad Juárez
Coordinates: 31°44′22″N 106°29′13″W / 31.73944°N 106.48694°W / 31.73944; -106.48694Coordinates: 31°44′22″N 106°29′13″W / 31.73944°N 106.48694°W / 31.73944; -106.48694
Country	Mexico
State	Chihuahua
Municipality	Juárez
Foundation	1659
Government
- Municipal president	José Reyes Ferriz ( PRI)
Area
- Total	188 km2 (72.6 sq mi)
Elevation	1,120 m (3,675 ft)
Population (2005)
- Total	1,400,891
- Density	7,452/km2 (19,290/sq mi)
- Demonym	Juarense
Time zone	Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7)
- Summer (DST)	Mountain Daylight Time (UTC-6)
Area code(s)	+52 656
Website	http://www.juarez.gob.mx

Ciudad Juárez, also known as just Juárez and formerly known as Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez has an estimated population of 1.5 million people.^[1] It stands on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. El Paso and Ciudad Juárez comprise one of the largest binational metropolitan areas in the world with a combined population of 2.4 million people. In fact, Ciudad Juárez is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, in spite of the fact that it is "the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones."^[2] For instance, a few years ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas published that in Ciudad Juárez “the average annual growth over the 10-year period 1990-2000 was 5.3 percent. Juárez experienced much higher population growth than the state of Chihuahua and than Mexico as a whole.”^[3]

More than 60,000 people^{[citation needed]} cross the Juárez-El Paso border every day, which makes it a major point of entry and transportation for all of central northern Mexico. The city has a growing industrial center which is made up in large part by the more than 300 maquiladoras (assembly plants) located in and around the city. According to a 2007 The New York Times article, Ciudad Juárez "is now absorbing more new industrial real estate space than any other North American city."^[1] In 2008, fDi Magazine designated Ciudad Juárez "The City of the Future".^[4] However, the city is also a site of widespread poverty and violence, including an infamous series of unsolved murders of female factory workers. The violence generated by the war of the drug cartels for control of drug routes translated into some 6,000 killings in 2008. More than 1,600 of them occurred in Juárez, three times more than the most murderous city in the United States.^[5] In response, business groups in Juárez have called for UN intervention.^[6]

History

This section may require copy-editing.

Juárez mission and cathedral.

Ciudad Juárez was founded as El Paso del Norte ("North Pass") in 1659 by Spanish explorers, seeking a route through the southern Rocky Mountains. The Mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was the first permanent Spanish development in the area, for as Native America population was already found there. The Jesuit friars established a community that grew in importance as commerce between Santa Fe and Chihuahua cross it. The wood for the bridge across the Rio Grande first came from Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the 1700s. The original population of suma, jumano and immigrants brought by the Spanish as slaves from Central New Spain grow around the mission. In 1648 while the Pueblo Revolt, some Tigua branch of the Pueblo established as refugees and a Mission was established for them in Ysleta del Paso del Norte. The population grew until around 1750, when the Apache attacked the other native towns around the missions. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande as the border between Mexico and the United States, separating the settlements on the north bank of the river from the rest of the town. Such settlements were in fact not adjoined to the town in that time, and as the military set its buildings the town grew around it. That would later become El Paso, Texas. From that time until around 1930 populations on both sides of the border could move freely across it. Ciudad Juárez and El Paso are one of the 14 pairs of Cross-border town naming along the U.S.–Mexico border. During the French intervention in Mexico (1862–1867), El Paso del Norte served as a temporary stop for Benito Juárez's republican forces until he established his government-in-exile in Chihuahua. In 1888, El Paso del Norte was renamed in honor of Juárez.

Ciudad Juárez again served as the country's provisional capital during the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution, when forces loyal to opposition candidate Francisco I. Madero, led by Pancho Villa, seized the city on 20 November 1910. The scene of intense fighting for a decade, Juárez recovered during the US Prohibition era (1919–33) as an entertainment center. Juárez continued to attract tourists from the southwest USA during the 1940s and 1950s, with its bars, nightclubs, brothels, bullfighting, and shopping. Juárez has grown substantially in recent decades due to a large influx of people rapidly moving into the city in search of jobs with the maquiladoras. Now, more technological firms have been attracted like the largest Delphi Corporation Technical Center in the Western Hemisphere, which is located in Ciudad Juárez and employs more than 2,000 engineers. Large slum housing communities called colonias have become extensive.

Juárez has gained further notoriety because of violence^[7] and as a major center of narcotics trafficking linked to the powerful Juárez Cartel, and for more than 1000 unsolved murders of young women since 1993. Unfortunately, because of widely alleged police complicity (and perhaps even participation on the part of police and government officials and local elites), the serial murders continue and most of them remain "unsolved" despite the years that have gone by, though the number of homicides has fallen slightly since 2004 despite the increase of population. As a result of the murders, Juárez (along with the capital of the state, Chihuahua, Chih.) has become a center for protest against sexual violence throughout Mexico.^[8] Meanwhile, many continue working to maintain a positive image of Ciudad Juárez. Songs 'Juarez' by the music artist Tori Amos and 'Invalid Litter Dept.' by At the Drive-In refer to Ciudad Juárez and the murders of women therein. A giant Mexican flag, banderas monumentales, was erected in Chamizal Park on June 26, 1997.

Climate

Ciudad Juárez has an arid climate because it is located in the Chihuahuan desert. Seasons are extremely well defined, hot summers, cold winters and cool springs and fall. Summer average high is 34 °C with lows of 22 °C, on the other hand winter high is 14 °C with lows of 1 °C. Because of the high altitude Ciudad Juárez is cooler than other desert cities in Mexico. Rainfall is very scarce but it is more prominent in the summer months. Snowfall is not a rare event—it normally snows once or twice every winter. The record high is 46 °C and the record low is -22 °C.

Demographics

The average annual growth in population over the 10-year period [1990–2000] was 5.3%.^[9] According to the 2005 population census, the city had 1,301,452 inhabitants, while the municipality had 1,313,338 inhabitants. According to the 2009 census Ciudad Juárez is now larger than Tijuana, BC.^[10] During the last decades the city has received immigrants from interior Mexico, some figures state that 32% of the city's population originated outside the state of Chihuahua, mainly from the states of Durango (9.9%), Coahuila (6.3%), Veracruz (3.7%) and Zacatecas (3.5%), as well as from Mexico City (1.7%).^[9] Though most immigrants are Mexican, some immigrants also come from Central American countries, such as Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Government

The city is governed by a municipal president and an eighteen seat council. The current president is José Reyes Ferriz, an affiliate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Three national parties are represented on the council: the PRI, the National Action Party and the New Alliance Party.^[11]

Crime and safety

Drug cartel violence

Due to Juárez' position on the border between the United States and Mexico, drug and arms traffickers have moved into the city and with them the local cocaine and methamphetamine market has expanded. Recent violence among rival drug cartels has resulted in almost half of Mexico's 8330 drug-related murders reported to have taken place since January 2007; Juárez now has by far the highest murder rate in the world. As of August 2009, Ciudad Juárez registers 130 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.^[12] Recent murders in the city have grown not only in numbers, but also in barbarity.

In September 2009, 18 patients at a drug rehabilitation clinic called El Aliviane were massacred in a turf battle.^[13] Patients were lined up in the corridor and gunned down in the early evening.

In late 2008, one murder victim was found near a school hanging from a fence with a pig's mask on his face, and another one was found beheaded hanging from a bridge in one of the busier streets of the city.^[14] Journalist Charles Bowden, in an August 2008 GQ article, wrote that multiple factors, including drug violence, government corruption, and poverty have unleashed a disordered violence that now permeates the city.^{[7] [15]}

In January 2004, Ciudad Juárez police unearthed a mass grave containing 12 bodies in a backyard. Mexican investigators found 19 more bodies buried in the backyard of a house in Ciudad Juárez, increasing the tally of corpses found there to 36, officials said March 15, 2008. Federal agents began digging in the yard on March 1, 2008, initially finding six dismembered bodies. Ciudad Juárez has been plagued by violence as Mexico's crackdown on powerful drug cartels stokes turf wars among traffickers who have been linked to thousands of killings in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. The body count in Mexico stands at 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007, officials said, with over 1400 in Ciudad Juárez alone.^[16][17] The population of Ciudad Juárez had to change their daily routine and many try to stay home in the evening hours. Public life is almost paralyzed out of fear of being kidnapped or hit by a stray bullet. On 20 February 2009, the U.S. State Department announced in an updated travel alert that "Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008." ^[18]

After being widely considered the most violent city in Mexico, "Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez" in late February. This move by the military came after it was reported that "250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes" in the city.^[19]

On 12 March 2009, police found "at least seven" partially buried bodies in the outskirts of the city, close to the US-Mexican border. Five severed heads were discovered in ice boxes, along with notes to rivals in the drug-wars. Beheadings, attacks on the police and shootings are common in some regions.^[20] On September 3, 2009 the Associated Press reported that the day before gunmen broke down the door of the El Aliviane drug rehabilitation center and lined their victims up to a wall shooting 17 dead. The authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims. Plagued by corruption and the assassination of many of its officers, the government is struggling to maintain Ciudad Juárez's police force. Other police have quit the force out of fear of being targeted.^[21]

The Juárez Citizens Command vigilante group (Comando Ciudadano por Juárez or CCJ) has begun to take actions into their own hands in Juárez, Mexico. "The CCJ declares war on the thieves, kidnappers and extortionists that have put in risk the rights of citizens and reiterates its plan to terminate the life of a criminal every 24 hours for the good of all Juarenses." But such theats are yet to be confirmed.^[22].

Female sexual homicides

Crosses erected as a monument to victims of the Juárez homicides.

Over the past 10 years Juárez has seen over 400 women fall victims to sexual homicides, their bodies often dumped in ditches or vacant lots. In addition, grassroots organizations in the region report that 40 remain missing. Despite pressure to catch the killers and a roundup of some suspects, few believe the true culprits have been found. A 2007 book called The Daughters of Juarez, by Teresa Rodriguez,^[23] implicates high-level police and prominent Juárez citizens in the crimes. This topic is also discussed in the 2006 book "The Harvest of Women" by journalist Diana Washington Valdez,^[24] as well as in the novel 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, in which Ciudad Juárez is fictionalized as "Santa Teresa", a border city in Sonora.

The number of murders overwhelmed the local authorities, which led to the construction of a US$6-million, high-tech laboratory complex that is a legacy of those killings. After an outcry over what was widely viewed as a slipshod investigation, international donors chipped in to help the State of Chihuahua build an unusually well-equipped forensics operation. It boasts a ballistics lab, chemical and genetic testing, DNA analysis and a morgue capable of storing nearly 100 bodies. But the murder rate of 2008 even overwhelmed this top of the line facility and during the peak of the murder spree refrigerated containers were used to deal with the record numbers of murder victims.

Economy

The El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation indicated that Ciudad Juárez is the metropolis absorbing “more new industrial real estate space than any other North American city.”^[25] The Financial Times Group through its publication The Foreign Direct Investment Magazine ranked Ciudad Juárez as the “City of the Future” for 2007–2008.^[26] The Ciudad Juárez-El Paso area is a mojor manufacturing center. Electrolux, Bosch, Foxconn, Flextronics, Lexmark, Delphi, Visteon, Johnson Controls, Lear, Boeing, Cardinal Health, Yazaki, Sumitomo, and Siemens are some of the foreign companies that have chosen Ciudad Juárez for their business operation.^[27] The Mexican state of Chihuahua is frequently among the top five states in Mexico with the most foreign investment.^[28]

Education

According to the latest estimates, literacy rate in the city is among the highest of the country: 97.3% of people above 15 years old are able to read and write.^[9] Juárez has three public and two private universities. The Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Juárez (ITCJ), founded in 1964, became the first public institution of higher education in the city. The Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ), founded in 1968, is the largest university in the city and has been ranked among the best universities of the country. It has several locations inside of the city like the Faculty of Biomedicine, the Social Sciences Center, the Arts and Engineering Center and spaces for Fine Arts and Sports. This latter service is considered among the best because it recluses nearly 30,000 practicipants in sports like swimming, racquetball, basketball and gymnastics and arts like Classical Ballet, Drama, Modern Dance, Hawaiian and Polynesian Dances, Folkloric Dances, Music and Flamenco. The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, UACH) is located in the city. The local campuses of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and the Autonomous University of Durango (UAD) are private universities. The Monterrey Institute of Technology opened its campus in 1983 and it is preferred among the upper and middle classes of the city. It is ranked as "third best" among other campuses of the institution, after the Garza Sada campus in Monterrey and the Santa Fe campus in Mexico City.

Overall, the city offers a wide range of schools for every type of income and need. The city is widely recognized for its excellence in education, especially the one offered by the private sector. The main institutions in Ciudad Juárez are the Instituto Latinoamericano, a Catholic school directed from Spain, one of the colleges managed by the company founded by Spanish mystic Teresa de Avila, by direct order of the Pope to revert the effects of Protestantism in Spain; The Colegio Iberoamericano, The Middle School and High School of the ITESM, the Teresa de Avila, the Instituto Mexico. Despite this, many people choose to study in the neighbor city of El Paso, some for convenience.

Media

Newspapers

Juárez has five local newspapers: El Diario, El Norte, El Mexicano, El PM and Hoy.

Broadcasters

There are 16 over the air TV channel signals in the city: [2]

Channel	Name	Affiliate	Country	Language	Local	National
2	Tu Canal	XHJUB	Mexico	Spanish	Y	Y
4	CBS	KDBC	United States	English	Y	Y
5	Canal 5	XEJTV	Mexico	Spanish	Y	Y
7	ABC	KVIA	United States	English	Y	Y
9	NBC	KTSM	United States	English	Y	Y
11	Azteca 13	XHCJE	Mexico	Spanish	Y	Y
13	PBS	KCOS	United States	English	Y	Y
14	Fox	KFOX-TV	United States	English	Y	Y
20	Azteca 7	XHCJH	Mexico	Spanish	N	Y
26	Univision	KINT-TV	United States	Spanish	Y	Y
32	Canal de las Estrellas	XEW-TV	Mexico	Spanish	N	Y
40	Multimedios	K40FW	Mexico	Spanish	Y	Y
44	Canal 44	XHIJ	Mexico	Spanish	Y	Y
48	Telemundo	KTDO	United States	Spanish	Y	Y
56	Canal 5	XHGC	Mexico	Spanish	N	Y
65	TeleFutura	KTFN	United States	Spanish	N	Y

In addition, there are three different paid television signals available, as well as 24 radio station signals in AM and 21 in FM.

Culture

Sport

Like in most of Mexico, soccer is the most popular sport in Juárez. The local soccer team is Indios de Ciudad Juárez. Baseball, basketball, tennis and American football are also popular, most of which are played at the high schools and university level. A soccer team named Los Indios resides in this city and was just recently promoted to the Primera Division (Main division) for the 2008 season. The Indios rent the stadium Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez. Juárez has 2 large stadiums: Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez and Estadio 20 de Noviembre. Mountain biking is also popular, with the Chupacabras 100 km race held annually in Juárez.

Very near the Cordova International Bridge is a large combination bmx and skatepark, Parque Extremo. This park features a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m²) concrete area with multiple ramps, rails, boxes, etc, and a 7,000-square-foot (650 m²) dirt area with ramps and tracks for bmx riding. It is much larger than the skate parks in nearby cities El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Ciudad Juárez served as the host of the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2008.

In film and other media

• Brokeback Mountain (2005) shows Jake Gyllenhaal's character Jack Twist going down to Mexico to see a male prostitute. The sign on the road reads "Juarez"
• The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
• Man on Fire (2004)
• Two novels by Chilean-born author Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives and 2666, take place in Juárez, named "Santa Teresa" in the novels.
• The Virgin of Juarez (2006)
• Bordertown (2007) (The film was not actually filmed in Juárez).
• Juárez was where the first divorce for Marilyn Monroe occurred.
• Many Hollywood stars went there during prohibition and afterward.
• In the 2000 film Amores Perros, Octavio plans to run away to Ciudad Juárez with Susana.
• The At the Drive-In music video for "Invalid Litter Dept." features articles and captions about the hundreds of unsolved homicides and rapes in Juárez.
• In the movie Glory Road (2005) the members of the basketball team sneak out of their dorms in University of Texas El Paso and go to Bar/Restaurant in Juárez.
• Cormac McCarthy's novel Cities of the Plain.
• Juárez was featured as the setting of a Mexican rebellion in the video game Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.
• Scene of the first mission in the video game HAWX.
• The final portion of the video game Call of Juarez takes place in the desert outside of the city sometime between the American Old West era of 1865 through 1890.
• Senorita Extraviada – Lourdes Portillo, 2001
• In the television show Mad Men one of the characters brings weed from there in the episode "The Hobo Code." Episode 8.
• In the film Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon's friend Pedro is from Juárez.
• In the four series book, I Live Here, the authors, Mia Kirshner, J.B. MacKinnin, Paul Shoebridge, and Michael Simons talk about the women homicides in Ciudad Juarez.
• The George Strait song "The Seashores of Old Mexico" references the city.

Songs about Ciudad Juarez

Arriba Juarez performed by Juan Gabriel

Ciudad Juarez performed by Maria Barracuda

Ciudad de Bajas Pasiones performed by Enrique Bunbury

Cocaine Blues performed by Johnny Cash

Dr. Bernice performed by Cracker (band)

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues performed by Bob Dylan

Juarez performed by Tori Amos

When Sinatra Played Juarez performed by Tom Russell

Places of interest

Rio Bravo at night.

• Antigua Presidencia Municipal: (Old City Hall) Built in the 19th century, using volcanic materials and adobe, with originally fine woods. Site to many historic events.
• Mission de Guadalupe: The oldest standing building in Juárez, from the 17th century. Continuously used by the Catholic Church.
• Auditorio Civico Benito Juárez: The local theater for the arts.
• Auditorio Municipal: The new state of the art theater built behind the UACJ Med School.
• Zona Pronaf: Bars, museums, shops, restaurants, entertainment. In the Zona Pronaf, one can find bars such as La Mulata, Cafe Dali, Don Quintin, San Martin, The News, Ole Bar Chamucos, among others.
• Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez: Home of the local soccer team Los Indios (The Indians).
• Avenida Juárez: Bars and shops.
• Parque Chamizal: Green area of the city, that consist of a park of over 40 acres (16 ha) with jogging trails, swings and recreational areas, which was once shared by El Paso and Juárez, was given back to Mexico by J.F.K in the early 1960s.
• Museo del Concorde: A place to see original parts of the airliner.
• Centro Cívico Paso del Norte (Opened on December 2006 and has been home of the Festival Internacional Chihuahua since).
• Misiones, Galerias Tec, Plaza Juárez and Rio Grande shopping malls.
• Parque Central: (Central Park) A family-oriented recreational area located 10 miles (20 km) south of the US-Mexico border.
• Parque Xtremo: The largest extreme park in Latin America.
• Cibeles: Convention Center

Notable people

• Juan Acevedo (MLB player for the Colorado Rockies, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and the Toronto Blue Jays)
• Miguel Aceves Mejía (El rey del falsete, Charro, singer, actor)
• Vanessa Guzmán (Nuestra Belleza Mexico 1996 and actress)
• Elizabeth Alvarez (actress)
• Manuel "El Loco" Valdes* (comedian)
• Liliana Domínguez (super model)
• Paulo Quevedo (actor)
• Lolita de la Vega (journalist)
• Coral Scherzo Opera de Cd. Juarez (Opera Group)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ciudad Juárez

• Official webpage of Juárez
• (Spanish) Secretariat of Industrial Development of Chihuahua State Government
• 2003 NPR article about the murders of Juárez women
• Border Stories video on a threatened Juarez journalist
• NY Times report on the nuclear accident

v • d • e   State of Chihuahua Chihuahua. (capital) Municipalities and municipal seats Ahumada (Villa Ahumada)  · Aldama (Juan Aldama)  · Allende (Valle de Ignacio Allende)  · Aquiles Serdán (Santa Eulalia)  · Ascension (Ascensión)  · Bachiniva (Bachíniva) · Balleza (Mariano Balleza)  · Batopilas (Batopilas) · Bocoyna (Bocoyna)  · Buenaventura (San Buenaventura) · Camargo (Santa Rosalía de Camargo)  · Carichí (Carichí) · Casas Grandes (Pueblo de Casas Grandes) · Chihuahua (Chihuahua)  · Chínipas (Chínipas de Almada) · Coronado (José Esteban Coronado) · Coyame del Sotol (Santiago de Coyame) · Cuauhtémoc (Ciudad Cuauhtémoc)  · Cusihuiriachi (Cusihuiriachi) · Delicias (Delicias)  · Dr. Belisario Domínguez (San Lorenzo)  · El Tule (El Tule) · Galeana (Hermenegildo Galeana) · Gómez Farías (Valentín Gómez Farias) · Gran Morelos (San Nicolás de Carretas) · Guacochi (Guachochi)  · Guadalupe (Guadalupe) · Guadalupe y Calvo (Guadalupe y Calvo)  · Guazapares (Témoris) · Guerrero (Vicente Guerrero) · Hidalgo del Parral ( Hidalgo del Parral)  · Huejotitán (Huejotitán)  · Ignacio Zaragoza (Ignacio Zaragoza) · Janos (Janos)  · Jiménez (Ciudad Jiménez) · Juárez (Ciudad Juárez)  · Julimes (Julimes)  · La Cruz (La Cruz) · López (Villa López) · Madera (Ciudad Madera) · Maguarichi (Maguarichi)  · Manuel Benavides (Manuel Benavides)  · Matachí (Matachí)  · Matamoros (Mariano Matamoros) · Meoqui (Pedro Meoqui) · Morelos (Morelos)  · Moris (Moris) · Namiquipa (Namiquipa) · Nonoava (Nonoava) · Nuevo Casas Grandes (Nuevo Casas Grandes) · Ocampo (Melchor Ocampo) · Ojinaga (Ojinaga) · Práxedis G. Guerrero (Praxedis G. Guerrero) · Riva Palacio (San Andrés) · Rosales (Santa Cruz de Rosales) · Rosario (Valle del Rosario) · San Francisco de Borja (San Francisco de Borja) · San Francisco de Conchos (San Francisco de Conchos) · San Francisco del Oro (San Francisco del Oro) · Santa Bárbara (Santa Bárbara) · Santa Isabel (Santa Isabel) · Satevó (San Francisco Javier de Satevó) · Saucillo (Saucillo) · Temósachi (Temósachi)  · Urique (Urique) · Uruachi (Uruachi) · Valle de Zaragoza (Valle de Zaragoza)