Killings widen rift for families on opposite sides of Rio Grande
By Stephanie Sanchez / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/08/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT




JUAREZ -- Mob-style killings and ambushes in Juárez may be pulling apart tight-knit families divided by the U.S.-Mexico border as those on the American side become reluctant to visit their loved ones.

"It's sad. It's sad not being able to come as often like before. Now you seriously think about it. I go long periods without seeing 'mi gente,' for that reason," El Pasoan Rosario Gomez said as she drove through Juárez last Wednesday afternoon.

It was her first trip there since May 25, a stark contrast to her usual routine, which has included at least three trips a week to Juárez since she and her family moved



to El Paso 17 years ago.
As she looked out upon the dozens of people walking along a busy Juárez avenue, Gomez wondered whether they were feeling what she felt these days.

"It's a great fear, and you feel nervous wherever you go," she said, referring to the apprehension that seems to grow with each discovery of bullet-riddled bodies in the middle of the day. "You can't even feel safe at a shopping center," she said

Gomez moved to El Paso because she wanted her two children, who were 11 and 7 years old at the time, to speak both English and Spanish, and she knew moving her family would be the best way to achieve her goal.

But that didn't stop her from continuing to regularly visit her brothers and sisters, who live about 30 minutes south of the Bridge of the Americas in the Division del Norte colonia, a modest neighborhood in central-southwest Juárez. Gomez's strong family bond began getting tested last year, even before the violence -- believed to be linked to drug cartels warring over control of the drug pipeline to the United States -- began in January .

It was Gomez's 7-year-old grandson, Juanito, who sounded the first alarm that life was about to change in Juárez. That was almost a year ago.

Gomez's daughter, Rebecca Gomez Flores, said it all started when they were visiting her aunt's home and a violent gang fight broke out nearby.

"Now he doesn't like coming because he's scared," Gomez Flores, 28, said as she drove her mother's worn, white Oldsmobile Alero during Wednesday's trip. "That time, I think one person died. Juanito was there and he was 6 years old. Since that time, he has been scared to go. He doesn't come with me; he cries."

Although their trips to Juárez are less frequent and more carefully planned, Gomez Flores and her mother won't stop visiting. Other than wanting to see family, they also have been planning to open a pizzeria in downtown Juárez. It was a plan that was hatched well before the homicide rate skyrocketed.

However, Gomez realizes she now must balance her love for Juárez with her concern for her family's safety.

Three weeks ago, when a widely circulated e-mail started warning people the Memorial Day weekend would be the "bloodiest and deadliest," Gomez said she warned family members in El Paso to stay out of Juárez for a while.

But she said one family member in El Paso said he had to go, explaining, "If it's my time, well, then they're going to kill me. How are we going to be continuously scared to go over there? We have to move forward and not be tied up."

And so it was that Gomez and her daughter were back in Juárez on Wednesday, trying to make up all the time they have lost trying to set up their new business.

As they drove through the city, Gomez pointed in surprise as two green Dodge Ram trucks with five soldiers in the back passed by .

"Oh, my gosh, they have guns and they're ready to aim," Gomez said.

A few minutes later, as they traveled south on E.J.E. Vial Juan Gabriel Avenue, they saw smoke and flames rise from beneath a staircase outside of a two-story meat market. Passersby seemed to barely take notice, and no one cried "Fire." A police car also drove by without stopping.

Gomez Flores and her mother wondered aloud whether people in Juárez were starting to become immune to the violence.

After arriving at a large bus repair shop and charter bus operation owned by Gomez Flores' father, Manuel Gomez Ortiz, she ran up several stairs to greet him in his office. She said she hadn't seen him in several months.

When asked what he thought about the violence throughout the city, Manuel Gomez Ortiz said, "It is scary. You can't go to a place where there are police or soldiers, because what if they gun them down and you get caught in the crossfire. Logically, no one is surprised that bodies are found every day. Now people just watch to see that it is not a family member."

Stephanie Sanchez may be reached at ssanchez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6137






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