Violence has El Paso on edge
By Ramon Bracamontes /
El Paso Times Article Launched: 06/08/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
Avenida Juárez, which normally bustles with activity, was eerily silent Wednesday in Juárez as violence has hurt the city's tourism. (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)Related
As the violence in Juárez continues -- two Texas residents were shot and four Mexican police officers were killed last week -- some El Pasoans are taking steps to ensure that they don't get caught in the line of fire.
Although El Paso officials say there is no reason for El Pasoans to worry, and city leaders are not concerned about the violence having an impact on this side of the river, there are subtle indications that the fallout from the brutal killing spree has already reached U.S. soil:
Seats on the Border Jumper trolley don't fill up as quickly as they once did.
A college graduate is looking to relocate because he doesn't want to raise his children near a city where beheaded bodies are being found.
A Kansas family with roots in El Paso will not come to El Paso for its annual summer vacation.
"I've been going to Juárez since 1963," said Kansas native and resident Sam Pacheco, who has in-laws and friends in El Paso-Juárez. "When we go, we usually stay in Juárez, not this year. We probably are going to bring my mother-in-law to visit us in Kansas instead."
As the death toll rises to more than 420 people in Juárez, there are no obvious signs that El Paso's reputation or economy are suffering because of its sister-city ties to Juárez. But everyone, from individuals to business leaders to scholars, acknowledges there is a pressing problem in Juárez, one that may eventually lead to a perception problem for El Paso.
"Every border community has to constantly work on its reputation and on making itself attractive to those who don't live here," said Irasema Coronado, a University of Texas at El Paso political science professor. "Today, just like with the femicides (the unsolved slayings of 300 women), when people find out I'm from El Paso, they say, 'Oh, my God, that's where all the killings are.' We just have to work to change their perspective."
For the second time this year, repercussions from the violence in Mexico were felt in El Paso on Friday, when Thomason Hospital went on high alert after two Mexican police officers, who were wounded by gunfire in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, were admitted for treatment, prompting El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar to call for more federal and state intervention to deal with the drug-smuggling problem.
"As violence escalates across the border, what seems to be a pattern now the injured are being sent to El Paso, not necessarily only for the health care but also they can be removed from the violent situation. That should be a cause for tremendous concern for everybody," Escobar said. "This is an issue that transcends Thomason Hospital. This is an issue about a drug corridor where two nations need to come together to solve a problem."
Whether the violence in Juárez is aimed at those in the drug trade or not, Coronado said, El Paso must start playing up its positives to the rest of the country.
"We need to focus the good things that do happen here," she said. "We conduct our daily business, we live our lives, we visit family in Juárez and nothing happens. And El Paso remains one of the safest cities in the United States."
For the past five years, El Paso has been ranked either the first-, second- or third-safest large city in the U.S., according to the FBI crime index.
El Paso County Sheriff Jimmy Apodaca said that the area's law enforcement officials are monitoring the violence in Juárez daily to ensure that nothing related to the killings over there occurs over here.
"We do this by carefully checking and responding to every call we get dispatched to," Apodaca said. "If it is related, we can easily determine that and react."
Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce President Richard Dayoub said chamber officers and employees have been able to go about their business of selling El Paso because the Juárez violence has not been a major topic anywhere they go.
"At this point and time I've had a few isolated calls from some of those in the maquila industry expressing concerns for their employees who are commuting from El Paso to Juárez every day," Dayoub said. "They just want to know if there are some best practices they should be taking into consideration."
There aren't, Dayoub said, as law enforcement officials have assured everyone that they are monitoring the violence and that it is not spilling into El Paso soon.
Only if the violence lingers will it start to have an impact on El Paso's reputation, officials say.
"Even then, the length of the violence and its intensity will determine what impact El Paso feels," Dayoub said. "It's all up to speculation."
Because the violence is unpredictable, El Paso native Edward Guereque, who has a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at El Paso, is looking for work in another city, he said. He doesn't want to be around to see whether the violence spills over.
"El Paso is nice," he said. "It's just the violence is getting bad in Juárez. I don't want to raise my children where that type of violence is happening. People are being beheaded over there, and we try to say it doesn't affect us."
Manuel Ochoa, vice president of binational development for the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., said El Paso hasn't been hurt by the drug wars because the problem is nationwide in Mexico.
"If it were just Juárez, then we'd be worried," Ochoa said. "But this is something that is happening all over Mexico, and in some areas it is more cruel than in Juárez."
While El Paso's name may not be synonymous with the negatives in Juárez right now, El Paso businessman Steven Silver said, the city must be prepared to distance itself from Juárez in the future.
Silver is concerned that El Paso's tourism and economic development entities are using the slogan "The Capital of the Border" throughout the United States to sell El Paso.
"I think we need to at least be re-evaluating how we market ourselves," said Silver. "We are calling ourselves the Capital of the Border, but if the violence continues over there, is that what we want to sell ourselves as?"
Ramon Bracamontes may be reached at rbracamontes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6142. http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_9517402?source=email
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