The Geography of Violent Death in Cd. Juárez

July Death Toll is 177, As Bad As June, 715 for the Year So Far

Today's Diario de Juárez carries an exceptional article by Daniel Dominguez (click here), offering an easily readable map of Juarez, with circles drawn around the areas most frequently associated with homicides this year.   

As has been the case for many years, the Back Side of Juarez, that is, the Southern area between the airport and the San Jeronimo-Santa Teresa road, largely along the Casas Grandes highway but including residential neighborhoods East side of the mountains as far North as the downtown area, is the most severely hit.  Twenty years ago in the empty spaces in this area the bodies of many dead women were buried, as well as the cadavers of hundreds of executed men, often in common graves.  It is still a place encajuelados ("trunked"), encobijados (blanket-wrapped), and more recently descapitados and strangled bodies keep popping up.  The most notorious neighborhoods, or colonias, in this region are Salidaridad, Paseos del Alba, Independencia II, and the Casas Grandes highway up to the turnoff to Santa Teresa.

The second-most homicidal area is the far South Valle de Juárez below the Zaragoza border crossing.  The most affected areas are Riberas del Bravo (near the River), El Sauzal, Zaragoza, and Loma Blanca.  This area has been associated for the past few years with deadly competition between drug gangs fighting for turf.

In third place is the Downtown area roughly from the Bridge of the Americas to Anapra.  This is the area now off limits to most US federal employees, and it includes the Chaveña, Felipe Angeles, Plutarco Elias Calles, Fronteriza Alta, Zacatecas, Altavista, and Azteca neighborhoods.  It is a the most densely populated area of the city.

Finally, there is an area just East of the Airport, developed only in the past three decades, in the El Campanario, Misiones del Real, Tierra Nueva, and Horizontes del Sur neighborhoods.