Life Imitates Art

In 1995, Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek starred in the movie 'Desperado'. It is a movie about a lawless Mexican town run by drug lords, where murder is commonplace. In one bar alone about 10 men are killed in a single gun battle. The violence is so surreal it leaves you thinking, "Only in Hollywood".

Not so. There IS a city in Mexico where these exact events have been occurring for 3 years now with no end in sight.





CNN April 5, 2011:

41 die in four days in Juarez killing spree

Between Thursday, March 31st and Sunday, April 3rd, 41 people were murdered in this city of one and a half million. Most were drug related. An attack on a two bars left 10 dead at one and 5 more at the other.

Last year 3,000 murders were committed in this city which lies across the Rio Grande from El Paso in Texas. That's almost 9 murders each day. Most go unsolved.

Before 2008, Juarez had about 200 homicides per year, which was similar to the murder rate in large US cities. But in 2008, the number of murders exploded to 1,600. In 2009 it reached 2,600. And in 2010 there were just over 3,000 killed. Juarez has been called the "deadliest city in the world outside of a war zone".

In addition to the drug murders are the number of women killed in sex crimes. Some 40 women per year are raped and murdered in Juarez, with their bodies dumped in ditches and vacant lots.

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