Two Sides of a Border: One Violent, One Peaceful

[groovedaddy]

EL PASO — Every day, as she gets off a bus in Mexico and crosses the border to go to work in downtown El Paso, Edith Escobedo says she feels a sense of relief. For at least the next eight hours, she says to herself, she is safe from the violence ripping apart Ciudad Juárez.

“One lives with fear over there,” Ms. Escobedo said, as she waited for customers in the Casa Sylvia clothes shop. “It is pure fear, pure insecurity. One cannot even go out at night. It’s curious that here it’s so different. It’s another way of life.”

Juárez and El Paso are divided only by the narrow Rio Grande and a couple of border checkpoints that have done little over the years to stop the steady back and forth of trade and family visits.

The two cities are so close that the mayor of El Paso can look out his office window to view downtown Juárez.

But in other ways the two cities are worlds apart these days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/us/23elpaso.html?th&emc=th

[VWolf]

1. Love this quote:

"The two cities are so close that the mayor of El Paso can look out his office window to view downtown Juárez."

LOL Look for the mayor to run for VP in 2012, touting his international credentials.