The drug wars are taking their toll on the people along the Mexico and United States border. At the Ciudad Juarez cemeteries, the evidence manifests in the number of Cadillac hearses that visit the final resting places on a daily basis.
More than 4,000 people have been buried in Juarez since January 2008 as the result of violence. There is also a huge section at the municipal cemetery for unidentified victims. Currently, about 40 freshly dug graves are ready for new internments. Altogether, about 90 shooting victims get taken to one of the 20 cemeteries throughout Juarez for their final burial. The hearses speed through the cemeteries so quickly and there is so much work to keep up with the demand that some cemetery employees are even getting injured.
“The unfolding slaughter in Juarez should chill us all,” wrote Vanessa Johnson, a columnist for The El Paso Newspaper Tree. “We need to be reminded that each death diminishes us all.”
About 10 percent of the people buried as the result of violence were innocent bystanders who just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many of them are children. It’s a sad situation and there just does not seem to be an end in sight any time soon.
April 15th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
We pray for you from the North.