Its only a short physical distance from the American City of El Paso, across the Border to Ciudad Juarez, on the Mexico side, but there is a much greater gap between the lives of comfortable Americans, and that which is lived just the other side of that imaginary line. Since the passage of NAFTA and other Trade Agreements, Ciudad Juarez has grown from a small desert outpost, to a profitable home for Hundreds of assembly plants, (Machiladoras) which exploit cheap labor and attract workers to the city, which has grown to a population of about one and a half Million in a very short time. At the same time, another force has been operating to swell the population of the city...Refugees. Undocumented citizens from Countries like Guatemala and Honduras, as well as many, many Mexican Citizens attempting to reach the USA in a bid to escape what has become an absolute nightmare of a Narco-State. With lawless gangs killing and terrorizing Citizens with either impunity from, or orders from, law enforcement and the State itself throughout the country, Ciudad Juarez stands as exceptionally violent. The killing of Women in Juarez has become nearly epidemic, with thousands being murdered in the city in recent years. The result of these forces coming to focus on this one city has been a Huge increase in the number of unoccupied and orphaned children in Juarez. Exact figures for the number of children are difficult to find, as so many are sent alone to cross the country in search of hope, by parents who know that they will never see the child again, but weigh that as nothing in the face of the known hopelessness that they are enduring. Some estimates put the number at above thirty thousand children Orphaned in the area. Children. Little children stripped of family, hope and place. Resources are marginal for those who help these kids in need and the area is chaotically dangerous almost all the time, so many are only surviving. Little to no media North of that thin veil of a border have made mention of the situation in Mexico in general (nevermind Honduras and Guatemala...)...and certainly nothing of the thousands of children suffering there, within a few miles of some comfortable, safe and normal American city, where the TV only disturbs the quiet Americans with make-believe evil and the eternal fear that something may lack sufficient freshness. Maybe its time we take a look at what is going on, and maybe, just maybe, start to care.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:05:52 +0000
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