As President Obama expresses outrage at the murder of three people in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez with links to the US consulate, Nick Martin blogs on his visit to a city where murder is an everyday way of life.
Flying into Ciudad Juarez was by no means awe inspiring. The city of 1.5 million is flat but sprawling, industrial and rundown, writes Nick Martin.
And I remember that our drive from the airport to the hotel was equally lacking of note.
To the left and the right were the signs for MacDonald’s, Wal Mart, Home Depot and the like – symbols of America dominating this Mexican border town.
But it was at the traffic lights where I fully understood what Juarez was all about.
I bought a newspaper from a kerbside-vendor and the headline read: ‘Not One Dead In Juarez Yesterday’. In a city where murder occurs daily, this was indeed big news.
That was September and today I’m writing the latest story about Juarez.
Three people gunned down by the cartels over the weekend.
They all had ties with the United States Consulate and had all been travelling back from a social occasion there. That connection to America has elevated this story to a higher level and certainly gained more exposure than the thousands of other murders that have taken place.
President Obama said he was “outraged” and the government has told all staff working in northern Mexico to get their families out.
During our four days in Juarez, in which we were investigating the plight of missing girls in the city, we filmed more than 20 murder scenes and 41 people were executed.
The local police would walk all over the area, standing on potential evidence, stubbing their cigarettes on the floor. It was often an hour or so before the bodies were moved and the areas taped off.
The federal police would then arrive and walk around some more before the army stepped in and ordered the scene to be cleared.
In 2009, not one of the 2,600 gang-related murders in Juarez was solved.
The surge in violence is a result of a turf war between two rival cartels: The Sinaloa and The Juarez. They are at war for lucrative drug smuggling routes to America.
Last year President Felipe Calderon ordered that 10,000 troops be sent to Juarez to crush the cartels and bring law and order back to this baron borderland.
But with last years record murder rate this policy is regarded as a failure.
Tomorrow President Calderon will visit Juarez to see what is being done to curtain the killings.
He’ll just have to stay a full day to find out.
If the average amount of murders occurs tomorrow 15 people will be dead by the end of his visit.