About 80 business owners in Ciudad Juarez, a border city that has become Mexico’s murder capital, attended a seminar on how to move their operations to neighboring El Paso, Texas, business networking group La Red said.
The seminar, which took place on Tuesday and featured immigration lawyers, real estate agents and bankers from El Paso, provided participants with information on visa application procedures and requirements for establishing new corporations or moving companies currently based in Ciudad Juarez, La Red, which organized the event, said.
About 300 bars and 4,000 restaurants have closed in Ciudad Juarez since 2009 because of the violence in the city, the Restaurant and Prepared Foods Industry Association says.
Business owners have been targeted by attacks, kidnappers and extortionists linked to drug cartels and other gangs.
Many businesses have closed out of fear or lack of customers in the city’s increasingly empty streets.
Ciudad Juarez has been plagued by drug-related violence for years.
The murder rate took off in the gritty border city of 1.5 million people in 2007, when 310 people were killed, then it more than tripled to 1,607 in 2008, according to Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office figures, with the number of killings climbing to 2,754 in 2009.
More than 3,100 people were murdered in the border city last year, making 2010 the worst year since a war between rival drug gangs sent the homicide rate skyrocketing in 2008.
The killing has not slowed this year, with more than 400 people murdered in Juarez, the state AG’s office said.
The violence is blamed on a war for control of the border city being waged by the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels with backing from hitmen from local street gangs.
A total of 15,270 people died in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and more than 34,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country’s cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.
Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.
The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.
Source: EFE
"About 80 business owners in Ciudad Juarez, a border city that has become Mexico’s murder capital, attended a seminar on how to move their operations to neighboring El Paso, Texas"
ReplyDeleteI don't know how they are going to make it over there in El Paso, when everyone know these owners pay less then 7 dollars a day in MX whereas in Texas its by the hour jajajja...good luck
7 dollars a day?
ReplyDeleteMarch 5, 2011 11:52 AM
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Wow, I wont even get out of bed for less than $20 an hour... - Grande Goat Horn
I have said for a long time that businesses would close leaving the people without jobs and sink them further into poverty.
ReplyDeleteAs for paying wages, when a business no longer pays exthortion to criminal groups, they have more money to pay wages to employees. And in the US their income will increase as there will be more people able to afford their goods.
It is so sad that these cartels are so blind AND GREEDY FOR UNEARNED WEALTH that they cannot see what they are doing to their country and it's people. Will they have a shell of a country left before they understand it?
Move to that evil US now why would anybody want to do that? Mexico can clean up its mess the political will is necessary people and govt so far no cigar. It was always OK for crime in Mexico so long as it was directed tword the GRINGO so it was tolerated, got out of hand,now its you reap what you sew.
ReplyDeletenot just the cartels,about half of the population is greedy as hell
ReplyDeleteAnybody know what the situation is like in Matamoros as far as what businesses if any have been affected by the mafias?
ReplyDeleteRarely does anybody suggest any feasible solutions to what is going on because the problem is not just one problem but many, each with its own circumstances, perceptions, and mis-perceptions. This is probably the most difficult task anybody could ever hope to take on.
ReplyDeleteI for one feel obliged to admit that part of the problem has been ours, the hispanic/mexican-american community. Remember, I'm not saying it's all ours but part of it. Yes, things could be different if for instance drugs weren't criminalized or our American big city ghettos weren't so afflicted with drug addictions, but come on, lets face it, we have a tendency to look the other way when it comes to drug-related things.
And we are justifiably afraid or negligent about this issue. Many of us still travel to mexico because we either have business or family to attend to, so there's a great risk involved if we pose a threat to these organizations. Just because we live in the U.S. doesn't mean they can't get to us if we rise up against them. Our very own families and friends are at times the same people dealing in these illicit businesses. We know them, we see them, they live in our house, down the street, in our block, in our neighborhood, we go to school with them, we hang out and party with them, we even partake in the ocassional high that comes from the drugs they traffic.
And yet despite what we see they're doing to our families, our communities, and our country/countries...we do nothing about it. We do not form community watch dog organizations, we do not squeal on our friends and family, we prefer to stick with our raza than to unite with the 'gabachos'. 'This is not my problem' we say to ourselves, hoping it might calm down by itself..but it doesn't. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Could we, the hispanic/mexican-american community have stopped this problem dead on its tracks if we had the courage to confront it from the getgo? I can honestly tell you I do not know. So many people make their livelyhood from trafficking and selling that it would seem imprudent to tell these people to do otherwise. Perhaps that is the problem, we're not sure which side of this harsh reality is the more serious to tackle.
We see now what great monster we've been harboring all because we've been too afraid and apathetic to deal it with head on. We've seen it and still run away from it. It's still easier to turn-face and avoid making real change and therefore prefer to silently go on with our lives as if everything was fine. We know it is not but we pretend to nevertheless. Being silent about this issue in its modern form has now become part of our culture just as much as our tolerance of drug-trafficking within our families and friends and neighbors became part of it a long time ago.
True, we Americans do not have that fear of the cartels instilled in us as the people of mexico do but we still hardly do anything about it. We in fact prefer to leave it up to the authorities to take care of it. I wonder though, how much we could have affected the situation if at least half of us built up the mentality to stamp out this scurge ourselves.
You are so right, the problem is not one problem but many, each to be addressed in its own way.
ReplyDeleteI have one solution, even it's just a tiny one: stop consuming drugs, even marijuana, [unless you know exactly where it came from.]
My solution: I quit using drugs (and alcohol). I am only one person. What if 100, 1000, 100,000 stopped today. You don't need it. All you need [emotionally] is fresh air and sunshine, healthy food, and a bit of love and compassion. The simple things in life are what matter after all the clutter is stripped away.
Try it for a day...maybe you'll say...no more. And you too can be a part of the solution.
Then we can figure out the rest...
I for one feel obliged to admit that part of the problem has been ours, the hispanic/mexican-american community....
ReplyDeleteDude spare me the B.S.
you sound like a Teabagger typing as a latino.
The whole "our" fault B.S. is just that. B.S.
Just what the Hell is "Our" fault?
as if a few people had twitter decades ago to organise themselves, grow some nuts and instead of posting blame do something constructive.
"Dude spare me the B.S."
ReplyDeleteTake responsibility like everyone else in this atrocity. You remind me of the Mexican parents that don't want to spank their kids when they are doing wrong, just letting run wild through the stores, just ignoring the problem and thinking of yourself. Nice. Americans: Stop pretending that you are not part of the problem and speak out against the users and abusers of drugs, even if it is a friend or relative. Mexico: Same with you, stop ignoring the trafficking and use as well. Stand up people, grow some cajones!