Exodus: After thousands of deaths, citizens finally give up and flee Mexico’s most violent city, Juarez



Thousands of families continue to flee the most violent place in the world outside of declared war zones: Juarez, known as the ‘murder capital’.

The Mexican city, which is located in the north of the Central American country and is close to the U.S. border, once boasted a population of 1.5 million but has been caught in the crossfire of a deadly drug war.

According to business leaders, the exodus is around 110,000 but a municipal group and local university say it is closer to 230,000 – and estimates by social organisations put the figure even higher.

Exodus: Some 230,000 have left Juarez, the most violent place in the world outside of declared war zones, where some 3,000 have died this year

Massacres, beheadings, YouTube videos featuring cartel torture sessions and even car bombs are becoming commonplace in Juarez, where more than 3,000 people have been killed this year, according to the federal government, making it among the most dangerous places on earth.

A turf battle over border drug corridors unleashed an unprecedented wave of cartel murders and mayhem – and, slowly but surely, families have had enough.

When people do move away, vandals arrive, carrying off window panes, pipes, even light fixtures, until there's nothing but a graffiti-covered shell, surrounded by yards strewn with rotting food or shredded tires.

New hope: Thousands of Mexicans are crossing the border and heading to El Paso, Texan, to rebuild their lives

Long controlled by the Juarez Cartel, the city descended into a horrifying cycle of violence after Mexico's most-wanted kingpin, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, and his Sinaloa Cartel tried to shoot their way to power here beginning in 2008.

President Felipe Calderon sent nearly 10,000 troops to restore order. Now, the Mexican army and federal authorities are going door-to-door, conducting an emergency census to determine just how many residents have fled.

Many people, however, refuse to answer their questions for fear authorities are simply collecting information about neighbourhoods so they can begin extorting residents — just like the drug gangs.

On the border: Children from Juarez look through the fence that separates them from Texas city El Paso, where there have been only three violent deaths this year

'Soon there won't be many people left to count,' said Laura Longoria, a 36-year-old who was forced to pay to drug gangsters to keep her small convenience store open.

While many Juarez residents fleeing the violence seek out more peaceful points in Mexico, others have streamed across the border and into Texas city El Paso, which has a population of 740,000.

El Paso, by contrast, has had three violent deaths this year – and one was a murder-suicide.

Danger: With some 3,000 deaths in Juarez in 2010, the city is believed to be the most dangerous place the world, apart from war zones

Juarez Chamber of Commerce President Daniel Murguia said at least 6,000 city businesses have closed so far this year, according to Mexican Interior Ministry figures. There is no data available on those shuttered amid last year's and 2008 violence, however, or on scores of businesses targeted by arsonists.

Kathy Dodson, El Paso's economic director, said the number of fees paid for new city business permits there have not increased dramatically, but Jose Luis Mauricio, president of a group for new Mexican business owners in El Paso known as 'La Red,' or The Net, said membership has grown from nine in February to about 280 today.

'Maybe it's a bit sad for Juarez, but these are business owners who are moving here because they have no choice,' said Mauricio, who leads weekly breakfasts for Mexican expatriates looking to set up businesses in El Paso.

'There are a lot of people afraid,’ said one 50-year-old former Juarez resident who moved to El Paso after he was kidnapped and has since set up a factory. ‘I don't blame them.

‘Even if they haven't had a bad experience, they don't want to be the next one to have one, so they run away. [Juarez] is a city that's dying. It's out of control.'

As commerce in the city dries up, even Juarez residents who do not move north cross into El Paso more frequently for services no longer available in their neighbourhoods and spend $220 million a year in El Paso, according to Juarez Chamber of Commerce President Daniel Murguia.

'Here it's a problem of opportunity, not just violence,' he said. 'There are no jobs, and that means there are more people who are becoming hit men and criminals.'

Even for those not tied to drug trafficking, staying in Juarez means paying off extortionists – like a 43-year-old food wholesaler near the city's centre who provides everything from bulk dog food to beer that smaller stores use to stock their shelves.

In September 2009, associates from 'La Linea,' enforcers for the Juarez Cartel comprised of hit men and corrupt police and soldiers, visited his store and said he would be required to pay 4,000 pesos — about $330 — a week 'for protection.'

'They came to see me in a very friendly way,' said the business owner, who asked that his name and key details be omitted so he could not be identified. 'Everyone is paying. Those who aren't paying are out of business, even dead.'

Murguia said extortion payments are now so common that they've become known as 'cobras del piso' or 'floor charges' for doing business in Juarez – but that there's no measure of how much payoffs cost business citywide per year because few admit to paying them.

Many familiar Juarez restaurants have shut down only to pop up anew on the U.S. side.

Now parts of Juarez after sundown are all but deserted – even in the heart of downtown.

Closed used car dealerships, taco and hamburger stands, pharmacies, ice cream parlors and muffler shops give way to a block of abandoned doctors' and dentists' offices, which stand forlornly next to a closed stereo outlet and across from an empty office supply store.

'Se renta' and 'se vende,' signs offering retail space for rent or sale are everywhere, plastered to the shuttered pizzeria, the closed and looted furniture store, the defunct locksmith and the empty facade of 'Jersey Mechanic.'