Ciudad Juarez Overview
Ciudad Juárez is located in Chihuahua, Mexico. Most commonly referred to as simply Juárez, it’s the largest city in the state of Chihuahua and sits on the Rio Grande River just south of El Paso, Texas. These two cities form the El Paso-Juárez metropolitan area, the second largest binational metro area along the US-Mexico border after San Diego-Tijuana, with a combined population of more than 2.7 million. In 2019, Juárez has a population estimated at 1.5 million people.
Demographics
Over the last several decades, the migrant population in Mexico’s interior has grown. It’s estimated that 32% of Juárez’s population originate from outside of Chihuahua. Most come from other states such as Durango (10%), Coahuila (6%), Veracruz (4%), and Zacatecas (3.5%). Most new residents in Juárez are Mexican but there are many who have immigrated from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras.
Over the last decade, many people who have been able to leave have fled Juárez due to widespread violence in the wake of the Mexican Drug War. In 2009, the city planning department estimated there were more than 115,000 abandoned homes in the city.
Today, Juárez is one of the world’s most dangerous cities (https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/world/2018/07/17/juarez-50-most-dangerous-cities-world/791543002/) and plagued with a high murder rate, extreme poverty, joblessness, gang violence, and political unrest.
History
Spanish explorers looking for a route through the southern Rocky Mountains in 1659 founded the town as Paso del Norte (meaning “North Pass”). During the French intervention in Mexico between 1862 and 1867, the town served as a temporary stop for the forces of Benito Juárez, until he created a government-in-exile in the state of Chihuahua.
In the years following 1882, the arrival of the Mexican Central Railway brought increased growth. The city began to thrive, bringing with it banks, trams, and telephone and telegraph poles. Paso del Norte would be renamed in 1888 in honor of Benito Juárez. The city continued to expand significantly.
In recent years Juárez has grown substantially, due to large waves of people moving to the city looking for work with the maquiladoras, or factories run by foreign companies to export its products. A growing number of technological firms have been moving into the city, employing thousands of local engineers in the process. As a result of this, large slum housing communities have become extensive.
Juárez has also, however, gained notoriety due to narcotics trafficking and violence linked to the Juárez Cartel. The city has been host to more than 1,000 unsolved murders of young women from 1993 to 2003 alone.
Population Growth
From the 1960s to the 1990s, Juárez saw high levels of population growth as a result of the newly established maquiladoras. This massive growth strained the infrastructure and resources of the city to a significant degree. Due to growing violence, the population of Juárez has taken a hit as hundreds of thousands of people have fled in the last decade alone.
