‘Juarez 2045’ brings robots into future Mexican drug war
A few years after averaging eight murders a day, Ciudad Juarez has seen a drop in murders and other violence.
Earlier this month, the mayor of Juarez greeted a dozen of his counterparts from around the region.
Many of them had not been in Juarez in a long time — some of them even years — because of the violence.
That visit was part of a renewed effort to bring tourists back to Juarez.
“A really important thing for us to remember about Juarez is, especially compared to 2009, 2010, 2011, Juarez today is far safer than it was back then,” U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke told ABC-7. “And it’s even safer, some are surprised to learn, than some other American cities.”
But perception of a lawless city persists and is the premise of a film, “Juarez 2045,” set to be released this summer.
In the movie, the war on drugs in Mexico has escalated after a drug cartel begins using robots to enforce their operations. A Marine goes to Juarez to find his brother who was kidnapped by a lieutenant who leeds the robotic cartel. The cartel then becomes a threat to the United States.
O’Rourke says Juarez has a long way to go, but that “anything that would sensationalize Juarez’s recent, unfortunate past I think does a deep disservice to this region and to Juarez’s ability to determine its future and to put a really difficult past behind it.”
“Juarez 2045” isn’t the first time violence in Juarez has been featured in media. Several films and documentaries have been made about the drug war.
In 2007, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 was released and dealt with a conflict between Mexican loyalists, a Mexican rebel group, and the U.S. Army in a battle in Juarez that spills into the U.S.
El Paso’s and Juarez’s mayors at the time did not take too kindly to the game.
As far as Juarez’s turnaround, O’Rourke says the city still has a long way to go.
“I think in part because of committed citizen leadership at all levels of Juarez civil society you’re starting to get some of the accountability, some of the responsibility that was missing before,” O’Rourke said. “In the last 14 months there have been zero reported kidnappings. We’re seeing murders at a far lower level than they had been say four, five years ago. Things like extortions and petty crime are also going down. Again, they may not be where we want them to be yet.”
An exact release date for “Juarez 2045” has not been announced. The film’s official website states it will be released this summer, but the film’s Facebook and Internet Movie Database pages don’t list a release date.
More about “Juarez 2045” from film’s IMDB page
Gear Side International, a robotics engineering company loses a multi billion dollar government contract due to bad practices. On the brink of bankruptcy, they sell off their technology to the Malvado cartel on the black market. With the advanced military robotics technology in the wrong hands. The cartel uses it to their advantage; replacing their enforcers, hit men, and soldiers. The cartel eventually becomes a very powerful threat to The United States.
