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 Travel & Outdoors | June 2008 
Well of U.S. Tourist Dollars Dries Up in Juárez
 Darren Meritz - El Paso Times
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| | A musician sat recently in a nearly empty restaurant outside the Juárez mercado. Violence has caused many American tourists to stay away from the mercado and other shopping areas near the international ports of entry, costing Juárez businesses. (Adriane Jaeckle/El Paso Times) | | |
Juárez mercado waiter Pedro Estrada Balderas treats his job more like it's a concierge service.
Able to point visitors in any direction to get them what they want, he now straddles a fine line, pressing upon customers that the Juárez mercado, at least, is still safe.
Even so, military and federal police are lining the streets in the embattled city. More than 400 people in Juárez have been slain since the beginning of the year, far surpassing last year's total of 300 homicides. The deaths include at least two dozen police officers, and many, many more believed to be involved in the illegal drug trade. Text messages and e-mails often warn Juárez residents to stay home at night and avoid clubs and bars, where another gunfight could be looming.
Several months of intense cartel violence have changed life for Estrada Balderas, who has seen business from American tourists wither away at the Apolo restaurant where he works. Even the jobs are dwindling at the Juárez mercado. More than half of the 11 waiters at the Apolo were laid off, or are about to be.
"Two months ago all the tables were packed," he said. "People had to call to reserve a table. And now? No calls."
Usually a hot spot for Americans shopping and visiting Juárez, the mercado is eerily void of U.S. tourists, the major economic driver for businesses in the area. Shoppers can find bargains on Mexican merchandise. Vanilla, clothing, leather, glassware, pottery and woven goods are just a very few of all the products sold at the market.
El Pasoan Sacnite Ramos, a lab assistant at El Paso Community College, once was a regular visitor to Juárez. She used to go over with her dad to eat, shop and sometimes go to the clubs with friends.
Not anymore. Ramos said it's been several months since she's crossed the border.
"I used to go more often, but now I'm very scared of going," said Ramos, 24. "I don't think it's going to go away soon. I think it's going to get worse."
Almost no Americans appeared to wander into the mercado last weekend. Men looking for shoes to shine, Tarahumara women searching for the next buyer for their jewelry and mariachis waiting to play their next song scrambled for any possible client.
But almost no one's there.
"We see more people that are scared and don't want to walk in the streets. It's lonely. It's real lonely," said Ricardo Campos, who with his family has sold T-shirts, jewelry and other merchandise at the mercado for three generations. "Now it's part of our lives. You see this and it's normal."
Campos, 36, can hardly think of a time when business has been so slow. He compares the lack of customers to just after the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, when cross-border traffic decreased to almost nothing.
The emptiness makes Campos sad because, he said, he feels law-abiding citizens and U.S. tourists who just want to shop and enjoy Mexico have little to fear.
Juárez is generally safe unless you're wrapped up in something illicit, he said.
"People that are in a bad business, they're in trouble," he said. "People that behave, they're not in any danger."
The potential for danger has also been on the mind of Charlotte de Jaeghere, a Belgian working at the Philips maquiladora in Juárez. Her colleagues mostly choose to live in El Paso. She decided to live in Juárez for the experience, and she's not regretting it.
"It's more chaos, but I like it," she said. "It does make me afraid, but everywhere you can be somewhere at the wrong time and at the wrong place."
Less understanding is a co-worker of de Jaeghere's, Juárez native Laura Chacon. Chacon fears for her city's future. She worries about crime proliferating and violence hurting her family.
The city's image, she said, is also taking a hit because people are beginning to associate Juárez with violence rather than with fun, pleasant experiences.
"Juárez is not like this," Chacon said. "Juárez is always going to the movies, going out to have fun, going to El Paso to buy stuff."
Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz(at)elpasotimes.com. |
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