We have been to Juarez at least a half dozen times in the last year or so, covering the violent drug war that is raging here. Its a surreal assignment, as the ‘hot spots’ we usually cover are in desperate third world countries, but in many ways Juarez, Mexico; looks a lot like any city in the United States, less than five minutes away across the border. War Zone type death and violence is everywhere here, but often it takes place in the Starbucks or Wal-Mart parking lot.
The scene is so common now that sometimes we don’t even bother to film it; A victim lies slumped over the steering wheel, windows shattered, blood covering the dashboard. As many as 20 times per day, a car driven by an off duty cop, a drug dealer, or a maybe a business man, is blocked in from the front and the rear. Hit men, dressed in military style uniforms carrying high powered automatic weapons and 9mm pistols, jump out of an SUV and fill the car with bullets. The killers are professionals, if they want you, your’re dead. Before fleeing they always put one last shot right through the head just to make sure.
All such murders here are considered drug related. None will be investigated. Very often we arrive on the scene long before the cops do, they are most certainly busy somewhere else in the city, at a near identical crime scene. The people of Juarez, the most violent city in the World, have gotten used to all of this. When we arrive at one of these scenes, the blood still streaming from the body into the road, children have already resumed their soccer games, they ride their bikes right over the spent 9mm cartridges around the body of the victim. The coroner won’t arrive for another half hour, his truck is already full of bodies he must drop off at the morgue, and life goes on in Juarez.
