Violent crime in Mexico is causing concern next door in Washington. This week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading a high-level delegation to Mexico to discuss a plan to tackle the country’s drug gangs. The visit comes just a week after the murder of US consulate staff in Ciudad Juárez. The news shocked the world, but Mexicans are cynical. Dutch photographer Teun Voeten reports from the world’s most dangerous city.
 
Since President Felipe Calderón declared war on the drug cartels at the end of 2007, around 4,000 people have met a violent end in Ciudad Juárez. The 10,000 soldiers and federal police patrolling the city have done nothing to make the city safer. In fact, the violence has only increased. The locals have no confidence in the authorities, particularly as the number of reports of human rights abuses by the army and police grow.

Deserted
Ciudad Juárez is slowly dying. Extortion and kidnappings have forced many businesses to close. There are deserted shops and cafés all over the city. After seven o’clock hardly anyone dares to venture out on the street if they can possibly avoid it. The city centre’s once-vibrant nightlife, which used to attract thousands of tourists, as well as revellers from the adjacent city of El Paso across the border in the United States, has come to a standstill.
 
An estimated 30 percent of the population has abandoned Ciudad Juárez. They have fled to the safety of El Paso, or back to their home regions. The state of Veracruz has announced special measures to accommodate the flow of returning migrants.

Murderer
A few days after the bloody murder of the US consulate staff, President Calderón visited the city. “We’ve had enough of it, Mr President,” ran the headline of El Diario, the biggest-selling regional newspaper. Dozens of demonstrators, held at a distance from the president by security forces, chanted “Calderón, murderer” and demanded the withdrawal of troops from the city.
 
Mr Calderón is well aware of how serious the situation is. The problem is simply that corruption is a part of Mexican society. The drug mafia’s turnover is estimated at an annual 30 billion dollars, a quarter of Mexico’s gross national product.

Meanwhile, the killing goes on. In the weekend that the US consulate staff were murdered, 35 other victims met their deaths – all of them Mexican. They received barely a mention in the international press. One demonstrator’s message to President Calderón: “It’s sad that it should cost a couple of American lives for the world to realise what’s happening here”.