ABSTRACT
At the beginning of 2008, the war between two powerful Mexican drug cartels generated an incredible wave of violence in some cities along the US-Mexican border. In Ciudad Juárez, located in the northern state of Chihuahua and to the west of the Texas-Mexico border, the feud over control of drug-trafficking routes between the Cartel de Sinaloa and the Cartel de Juárez has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people since the war began. Figures from the Chihuahua’s State Attorney Office offer a clear picture of the escalation of violence: in 2007, 307 people were killed in cases related to drug trafficking; in 2008, the number rose to 1,607; in 2009, it was 2,601; and by 2010, the most violent year in the period, assassinations escalated to 3,156. 1
