Panic over the .net

Last week, an e-mail was sent out to Juarez residents warning them about some major violence that was supposed to take place on the 24th and 25th of this month. Juarez has already been under siege because of the drug war that most residents took this e-mail very seriously.

Almost everyone feared to go outside so entire restaurants had no customers, a bull fight was canceled, concerts were canceled, people didn't show up for work. Juarez's economy took a heavy beating in just two days. To quote from Newspaper Tree "Restaurants, bars, hotels, pharmacies, and other businesses have reported losing between 20-70 percent of normal sales," because everyone was scared. I know of a few people who came to El Paso to hide from the danger.

I don't know all of the details and I never received the cautionary letter, but what I've heard on the news was that 25 people were killed that weekend in gangster fashion. There was at least one kidnapping and several arsons as well. It appears that the danger was real.

But the strange thing is that no one knows the origin of the e-mail. Evidently it was sent anonymously and everybody has a theory about who sent it. I think that the e-mail was authored by a goodhearted whistle blower in the gang community, but others disagree with me. A student from Juarez told me that the e-mail was concocted by some American seeking to benefit from the shutdown of Juarez. I completely disagree with this theory because El Paso and its sister city Juarez are one community separated by a ditch. (Ditch/River, Carmel/Caramel who cares?) Whatever happens to one city effects the other because we're connected economically, politically, and socially.

If you would like more information, click here.