Ciudad Juarez passes 2,000 homicides in 2009, so far
By LISE OLSEN Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 21, 2009, 7:20PM


Ciudad Juarez passed the 2,000 mark in homicides Tuesday — setting a record for violence in the border city that has become ground zero in Mexico's war on drugs and cementing its place as one of the most murderous cities in the world.

Before 2008, Juarez, a city of 1.5 million across the Rio Grande from El Paso, formerly had about 200 homicides annually, a rate comparable to or lower than such U.S. cities as Houston. But last year, Juarenses — as residents of Juarez are known — saw 1,600 lives lost in an alarming and mostly unsolved crime wave. This year, that number was passed by summer's end.

“With this, our city has reached a new historic mark in violent acts that verifies that this is the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones,â€