Community | January 07, 2010 | 11 comments

Christmas, Drug Wars and Juarez

source: http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/07/christmas-drug-wars-and-juarez/

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afitzgerald

http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/07/christmas-drug-wars-and-juarez/

Photojournalist Jeff Antebi visited Ciudad Juarez in Mexico over Christmas to document the on-going narco war. He wrote a guest post with a photo essay for the Current News Blog. Here's an excerpt:

I arrived at my hotel at 3:30pm expecting to take a minute to shower and eat, but immediately, my interpreter started rolling in with calls about murders. At least five people were gunned down in locations spread citywide.

By the time I returned to my room at 9:30pm, like clockwork, Juárez had filled its quota, right before my eyes.

As it was Christmastime, I was looking for signs to take the city’s pulse. The first noticeable thing was how sedate the mood was. More somber than quiet. There was very little in the way of public festivities or typical signs of holiday celebrations. Ubiquitous pickup trucks, filled with police and soldiers, roamed the streets with mounted machine guns. A candlelight vigil calling for peace, held in a large park in the center of town, brought only a handful of people.

“Bars.” My driver said when I asked about good places to visit. “You can take photos of the empty bars.” He said. “Everyone is scared to go into them. People who want to drink, they drink inside their homes now.”

I went to a lot of murder scenes over the course of 72 hours. All involved execution style killings.

READ MORE AND SEE MORE PHOTOS: http://blogs.current.com/news/2010/01/07/christmas-drug-wars-and-juarez/

Jeff's site: http://jeffantebi.com
  1. groups:
    Community,   News_Featured,   Mexico's Drug War
  2. tags:
    Photography,  Drugs,  Pictures,  Drug War,  19 more
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11 comments // Christmas, Drug Wars and Juarez

  • planetocean
    • 0
      planetocean  

    • Christmas a time of peace and joy only in Mexico its a different story for those people. Can't even walk out of their own homes that is just sad to see and hear. Will this war ever end I think that will be for the new president that will step in next.

    • 2 years ago
  • deathmetalbrian
  • Leolopez22
    • 0
      Leolopez22  
    • Image

    • I don't think Juarez will ever win the war with drugs. Take one top drug lord out another pops right back up.This happens because of this object called money. People want it and in Juarez people will take out anyone who gets in the way of that. This just goes to show you the world revolves around money. It's all about money, like they say money talks bullS**T walks.

    • 3 years ago
  • juicie
    • 0
      juicie  
    • Leolopez22:

      On the individual level, drugs are a health problem ... Decriminalization addresses that, or at least takes it out of the criminal justice system.

      But with decrim there is no control over production, so there are harmful adulterants to increase profit.

      Also there is no control over distribution so there is little preventing CHILDREN from buying and selling; in fact that is more likely. And there is no recourse if the buyer gets screwed over. In the free market if you don't like the quality of some one's wares then you go to the next guy, and in a black market the suppliers are limited and hard to find so you have Soap Bar and Grit Weed that won't ever go away.

      With legalization those problems go extinct, and whats more people will regain respect for law enforcement as they move from shaking down and harassing to protecting and serving.

    • 3 years ago
  • David_Osedach
    • 0
      David_Osedach  

    • I have spent more time in Juarez than I would like with business having to do the US Consulate. One thing I noticed is the availability of street drugs on every corner with few takers. Our hotel had cable so we stayed in a lot. After that El Paso seemed great!

    • 3 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  

    • the time has come to decriminilize all drugs, legalize pot and steal the profits away from the violent drug cartels who will never be beaten in an unsuccessful war on drugs. This war on drugs is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American public by its government. A government that was complicit in the importation of drugs by CIA years ago to create black funds for other purposes. All unconsititutional. Drug wars by rival gangs is at the heart of violence in Mexico and inner cities of the U.S. Liberal or conservative if you can't see whats happening your blind. This whole war on drugs is against minorities in the inner cities who fill our jails with mandatory sentencing and three strikes rules that send so many young black and hispanic men to prison

    • 3 years ago
  • bailey78
  • marQueso
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      Thats so sad but one has to wonder how many of them were drug related do to oweing money to drug dealers. They hate to loose money due to people not wanting to pay for there drugs they got on credit.

    • 3 years ago
  • juicie
    • 0
      juicie  
    • bailey78:

      In El Paso Texas, Juarez's sister city across the river to the north has already seen spillover. Some people have been taken from Juarez to a Hospital in El Paso to treat gunshot wounds, and the gunmen follow to finish them off--endangering the hospital's workers and clients who are unrelated to the drug trade.

    • 3 years ago
  • biggranny

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