El Paso and Juarez rekindling official Sister City status
El Paso and Juarez city leaders came together for a joint City Council work session on Monday. The event was held at the El Paso Convention Center instead of City Hall.
The meeting was held to focus on strengthening ties. The group discussed border relations, cultural events and economic development between the two cities.
El Paso Mayor Dee Margo and Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada were in attendance at the public meeting.
LINK: PRESENTATION AT JOINT JUAREZ-EL PASO CITY COUNCIL MEETING
The group talked about formalizing a Sister City agreement between the city of El Paso and the city of Juarez. The move would need action from both City Councils.
“It is a resigning so to speak of a sister city agreement that has been somewhat dormant. And all we want to do is accentuate and reinforce the fact that we are truly one region. We are one region economically, culturally and otherwise,” Margo said.
Both cities have agreed to create a task force within the next 30 days to work on bi-national issues and projects.
“When you look from southern New Mexico through Juarez we are 2.7 million people. We really function economically as one region. So, from a standpoint of governance we ought to talk more,” Margo said.
Rep. Peter Svarzbein said city officials from both sides of the border want to work on improving the way the region is viewed from the outside.
“Comments from federal government officials that talk about the border only in terms of danger and violence, that only communicate the border as a threat and never communicate the border as an opportunity hurts us,” Svarzbein said.
Rep. Svarzbein said it is time for the Borderland to write its own narrative.
“Rather than wait for other people to come and say these are the values, these are the things that we need to build upon our economy and culture, we need to do it ourselves. And today was an opportunity for local leadership to create those bonds and also to offer new ways to continue collaboration and pathways of communication and growth.”
Reps. Svarzbein and Cissy Lizzaraga also talked about creating some sort of mass transit to improve transportation between El Paso and Juarez. The two also want to re-establish the city of El Paso’s border relations committee which is currently dormant.
