Ciudad Juárez
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Added together, El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez make up the largest border city in the world. Ciudad Juárez has 17 industrial parks where hundreds of thousands of people—60 percent of them women—work long shifts in the maquiladoras to assemble goods for export to the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. There are also eight universities, several hotels and the city is the fifth in size as well as the fifth largest economy in the country.

Ciudad Juárez has drawn international attention, including condemnation by the U.S. for a highly disturbing rate of women’s deaths. Since 1993, almost 400 women and girls have been murdered here. More than 70 remain missing. Although the victims have been almost exclusively young Mexican workers from the maquiladoras, foreign travelers—women in particular—will rightly feel uncomfortable at the knowledge of what has happened here. Although danger is not high for outsiders, for their own peace of mind female visitors should not travel alone in Ciudad Juárez. After dusk, it is wise to remain only in tourist and safe public areas. Do not hail cabs from the street, and never accept rides from strangers. Casa Amiga Crisis Center (in English), founded by Esther Chávez in the early 1990s, has probably done the most to raise awareness of this violence. It provides free psychological, legal, and medical assistance for people who have suffered violent situations, on Durango Street #916, in the Fraccionamiento Las Torres neighborhood, telephone: +52 (656) 690-8300.