Felipe Calderon Case

The main idea of the book was to convey the fear, the pain, and the ruin of the city Ciudad Juarez. The Mexican city lies across the border from El Paso, Texas, and has the highest murder rate in world. Drug trade and human trafficking are said to be the reason why the murder rate is so high, however Charles Bowden, author of the book shows another side of the story, that while drugs, and trafficking play an important role in the killings the fact that four hundred foreign mainly American factories where workers are paid slave wages at most seventy five dollars week plays a big factor as to why the city is in such shambles. Sending in the Mexican army, and federal agents has done little to control the violence, in fact the murdered number has risen because of it. The economy has not helped with the violence either. In the past 2 years thousands of jobs have been lost, with thousands having to leave the city because of it.

Felipe Calderon the president of Mexico’s excuse for all the murders is that ninety percent of the dead are people who were somehow involved in drugs. For example, a woman who worked as the administrative director for the Juarez police department for seven years is murdered right in front of her home. She had been considered a good, innocent woman, well known in the community, but now she is thought of as dirty, that she must have been connected with the wrong people doing bad things even though there is no evidence of it. This is one of dozens of stories where someone who had no connection with drugs or trafficking that is murdered is now considered dirty.

Walking on the street in broad daylight is not even safe. There is drive by shootings, people being stabbed, and disappearing’s that somehow there are no witnesses too. One man, Emilio Felix owes a gang money but does not have it. Afraid of being gunned down he takes his eight year old son everywhere with him thinking no one will touch him with his son with him, however they shoot him right