Young Generation Falling Prey To Juarez Drug Violence

By BELO Border Bureau Chief Angela Kocherga

JUAREZ — Mexican officials say more than half of those killed in Mexico’s most violent city are young people, even children.

“Sometimes, when we cross the border there are heads;the heads of people right there,” said a woman recalling what he has seen in Juarez.

Children and teens are also casualties of drug violence. At least 60 percent of the murder victims in Juarez are under 25, officials said.

One of the recent victims was Priscilla Ibarra Alfaro. She was only eleven when she died in a hail of bullets. An Americancitizen, she was visiting her mother and younger sister in Mexico.

“Her vacation [in Mexico] was a point of no return,” said her uncle. Priscilla lived with him on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Her uncle saidshewanted to work during hersummer vacation and planned to help him at the family bakery.

If some youth are caught in the crossfire, others are caught up in the cartel’s turf war as foot soldiers.

Juarez’s youthful labor force and proximity to the U.S. made it a Mexican “border boom” town. It has also been exploited by drug traffickers trying to grow their business.

“Youngsters are easily recruited by cartels,” saidTeresa Almada. She works with “at risk youth” in some of Juarez’s poorest and roughest neighborhoods.

Eric Ponce is one of her success stories. He’s now enrolled in college but still volunteers at the youth center. He worries about the lack of role models for kids.

“The gangsters carry a lot of weight,” he said nervously.