I just wrote a piece for FDI magazine in the UK, which in 2007 named Ciudad Juarez a North American City of the Future. The piece, based on interviews and research of the business sector, offers a really different view of what's going on there. Of course people are dying, and the rest of those left alive are scared, but business appears to be trucking along...
http://www.fdimagazine.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/3429/On_the_borderline.html
You know I heard a similar take from some people when I went there in June. Lots of factories were hiring, people said that the nightclubs were starting to fill up. There was definitely an unsettling vibe in the town, but it wasn't quite as dystopian as I expected.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting story. I recently interviewed some economic development and chamber of commerce types who all spoke of a rebounding maquiladora sector and no big foreign companies leaving town for security reasons. Even other border towns like Reynosa are seeing some increased investment, although apparently not to the same degree as Cd Juárez.
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