El Paso Leaders Question Newspaper’s ‘Sister City’ Headline

El Paso city and business leaders are taking issue with Wednesday’s headline on the front page of the El Paso Times.

The headline implied that the city of El Paso is gathering opinions on potentially cutting its “sister city” ties with Ciudad Juarez, a city plagued by drug violence.

As Juarez tries to fix its bullet-riddled image with tourism billboards on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, El Paso, too, is working on enhancing its own image to try and attract new businesses.

Part of the process includes a survey sent out by the city to more than 4,100 members of the current business community.

This is what El Paso Times headline said: “Survey Asks If EP Should Drop ‘Sister City’ Juarez.”

ABC-7 obtained a copy of the survey. The introduction mentions that drug cartel violence is hurting El Paso’s image, and three of the 10 questions directly relate to the bloodshed.

One of those questions asks businesses whether the violence has affected their business.

“It’s a fairly simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question,” said Richard Dayoub, president of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce and a member of El Paso’s Strategic Communications Task Force.

But Dayoub said nowhere does the survey ask about severing any “sister city” relationship.

“First of all, there’s a tremendous amount of empathy to the challenges that people in Juarez have,” he said. “We’re mindful of it; we live it every day. Most of us have family and friends over there.”

Made up of roughly 30 members, the Strategic Communications Task Force is charged with finding ways to enhance and streamline El Paso’s image.

Ken Farah of the Regional Economic Development Corporation, or REDCo, is a member of the task force. He received the survey and was quoted in the El Paso Times article.

Farah said that even if El Paso wanted to cut all ties with Juarez, it would be impossible.

“The economies of the two communities are completely intertwined,” he said. “There are families on both sides of the border who commute and live on both sides of the border.”

Farah also showed ABC-7 a photo of El Paso Mayor John Cook and Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia together in New York City on Wednesday. He said the pair was in town, in part, to promote the border on CNN.

After speaking with Dayoub and Deputy City Manager Debbie Hamlyn, ABC-7 reached out to the El Paso Times for comment Wednesday afternoon.

ABC-7 left a voicemail for outgoing editor Chris Lopez, who was said to be in a meeting.

Lopez did not call back by deadline.