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Juárez by Night

QUERÉTARO| Diego San Román. (Fotos/Morgan Smith)

ALBERTO BALDERAS BULL PLAZA REINAUGRATED AMONG EMOTIONS

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“Look out. You’re going to get killed,” the security guards yelled as we scrambled over the coupling between the railroad cars. It was 7 PM on Friday night, October 4 in Juárez and this enormous train had stopped in the middle of Francisco Villa Street which is between the Avenida Benito Juárez where the restaurants are and the Plaza de Toros Alberto Balderas. Those dozens of us who had tickets for this first bullfight in many years were blocked by this train and eventually had to work our way between the cars, hoping the train wouldn’t suddenly start up again.

Juárez is still a dangerous city but this was the only danger we faced.

I was there with two friends from Arizona, brothers actually. The older one, Jim Verner is an “aficionado práctico” or amateur bullfighter but one with many years of experience and expertise. I wouldn’t have gone but for the opportunity to be with him and also to see Juárez at night, something I have avoided in many years of visiting the city. Being at the right place at the right time of day has always seemed a good recipe for safety.

The Plaza de Toros Alberto Balderas is now under new management and this was to be its first test. I have seen many corridas there but the last one was in 2019. In this case, there will be additional corridas on October 18 plus November 3 and 17.

The Plaza was about three quarters full and we were able to see three excellent young Mexican matadors. There were some glitches. At one point, the lights went off, leaving a matador and his team in the dark with a highly dangerous bull.

Later a water hose broke, flooding part of the arena. But these were just incidentals for the enthusiastic and hard drinking crowd. Unlike bullfights in Spain, here there is an endless stream of vendors, men and women, hauling huge buckets of beer, offering taco chips with some sauce I haven’t the nerve to try, selling cigars and other treats.

The crowd loved the evening and the short “temporada” or season is off to a good start. I predict that there will be an even bigger crowd on October 18 and at the November events. However, this was also a chance to see Juárez at night.

Regresaron las corridas de toros a Juárez

AGUASCALIENTES| Leo Valadez.

Here are some reactions.

For a city that is ranked as one of the most dangerous in the world, Juárez seemed perfectly safe given the number of men, women and families with little kids on the streets. We went to the famous Kentucky Club for dinner and it was packed. Mediocre food and too much noise. We also took several long taxi rides to and from our hotel in Juárez, the Comfort Inn, and both drivers stressed how safe they felt.

When I got home, however, I read of the brutal murder of Mayor Alejandro Arcos Catalán, 43 in Chilpancingo in the state of Guerrero. This happened while he was doing humanitarian work – bringing water and other supplies to families damaged by Hurricane John. He had only been elected a week earlier. Just before he took office, his proposed security minister was killed and then the secretary general of the City Council was also killed.

Juárez by Night

The state of Guerrero has long been highly dangerous; many of the migrants I have met in Juárez are from there. The sheer brutality of the Mayor’s murder was astounding.

In Coahuila, the Sinaloa cartel rules with near impunity. Both Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the previous president and his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum have avoided confronting this cartel. Scheinbaum is quoted as saying that, “Entering with firepower would cause a war.”

Juárez by Night

Their solution was to put in place in AMLO’s closing days as President a constitutional change that locates the National Guard under the control of the military. During his tenure from 2006 to 2012, using the military was the strategy of Felipe Calderón and it only resulted in an increase in killings. AMLO has used the military to guard the border wall at Anapra, a process that the US Border Patrol claims didn’t work. He used the military to set up check points around the city. That has had no impact.

The answer is real law enforcement – effective police officers and prosecutors, a functioning judicial system. The Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) has a program to help train Mexican prosecutors that began in 2006 and has trained 27,000 law enforcement officials. Eighteen states are now members. This is at least a partial answer.

Yes, squeezing through those train cars was the only danger we faced in Juárez that Friday night but that was no measure of violence in Mexico.