The Old New Juarez

Juarez Loteria
Loteria de Juarez. Photograph ©BruceBerman2013

The New Juarez.

Everyone is talking about it. A new day, full of new promise. Many acquaintances tell me about all the new bars and cantinas. That Juarez will rise again.

This morning, Easter morning, two bodies were found hanging from a bridge in central Juarez. The victims were young, scruffy, boys with no names.

Hanging, like crucifixion, is a public and humiliating death. A death after death, the person shamed, rendered helpless, publicly. This is death with a message.

Was this the work of the Cartels, then? That battle appeared to be settled, more or less.

So what could such a public and violent death mean? Could this be a war on the war, a clean up, a message to the criminal disorder that had come to dominant this city, that the time for order has returned?

Order, but not justice. The status quo.

Has the old Juarez returned for a new day?