Todos somos Juarez. Lights and shadows of a public intervention to deal with the socio-spatial consequences of violence in a Mexican border city

The objectives of this study will be to develop a critical view of the impact of urban violence and its influence on the spatial transformation of Ciudad Juarez from 2007 to 2011, and to analyse the efficacy of the strategies implemented by federal government to reduce violence approaching its roots, specifically focusing on the program “Todos Somos Juarez” (We are all Juarez). The analysis will explore urban violence acknowledging it as a complex matter result of local and global dimensions. It will focus on the causes of urban violence enrooted on the physical dimension of the city, i.e. the aspects that increase socio spatial segregation. The emphasis on the spatial dimension of violence comes from the will to understand how violence, the fear of violence, and the strategies to tackle it, can reshape the city and how they promote or decrease violence. The reason for the time lapse selected is due to the fact that 2007 marked the dramatic increase of violence in the city. This crisis was unchained by the so-called ‘war against drugs’ started by federal government that turned Juarez into a battlefield and was aggravated by the increase of unemployment after the United States crisis, which signified the closure of several maquiladoras , the main source of employment of the city. This dynamic followed the consequent years up to 2010 when it reached its peak, from that year many policies to contain the effects of violence and to tackle it from its roots started to be implemented by the national and local government until 2011, when violence started to decrease significantly. Furthermore, even if Juarez has suffered from other violent periods, as Muertas de Juárez in the 90’s, those did not impacted the urban space as the recent one did, where thousands of stores, houses and maquilas were left abandoned, and where the consolidated fabric was fragmented by the emergence of civil society-produced enclaves. Consequently, the impacts of violence will be defined by mapping the spatial transformation in three phases: before the violence wave of 2007, after the violence wave of 2007 showing how society reacted to insecurity, and the third, after the government mobilised spatial policies to tackle violence. In order to do so, the study will be divided as follows. The first chapter named the spatial dimension of urban violence will present on the first part a literature review of urban violence, focusing on the influence of socio-spatial exclusion on the emergence of violence. On the second part, the study will recognise the role of the authorities on the procurement of security and wellbeing, portraying an overall image of Mexican governance system: on first place, it will show government actions at national scale in matters of drug dealing along history, describing a system corrupted by cartels and private interest, secondly it will present how national government have dealt with the roots of violence, explaining a long history of social policies that follow a paternalist approach, promoting inequality instead of fulfilling its purpose, i.e. to eradicate it. On third place, it will explain the relation of uncontained urban sprawl on Mexican cities and the housing policies, describing a situation where urban development is directed by the private sector, neglecting the provision of public spaces, services and infrastructure to population. After studying the role of the State on these three aspects, the chapter will reflect on the way a weak State has enabled inequality, injustice and violence on Mexican cities. The second chapter named Juarez and its dynamics will introduce the contextual situation of Ciudad Juarez, a city characterised by its desert, its border with United States, its strong industrial economy and an urban area developed by and for the private sector. These aspects are the essence of Juarez as they have had an enormous weight on the way the city has been shaped and how it is lived. They might be seen as unrelated, but in Juarez they are intertwined and enable each other, resulting on unique dynamics quite different from other Mexican cities. Furthermore, the way on which these layers have had an impact on the spatial configuration on the city is explained on the weak role of the public sector that has neglected its role as an advocate of security, welfare and as regulator of urban development. Additionally, this behaviour has increased socio-spatial segregation, which influences and enables the emergence of violence. In this way, Ciudad Juarez is composed by four layers, Border city, Desert city, Industrial city and Spread city, their impact on the urban morphology will be shown through maps and indicators, which will construct a final map that represents the “state of art” of the city before 2007. The third chapter named 2007 violence wave in Juarez will introduce the historical relation of violence and the city, to later present a fifth layer, the Feral city, that describes the violent period lived from 2007 to 2011. This section will trace the changes on the indicators of each layer after 2011and it will present a mapping of the spatial impacts of violence. The third section of the chapter will show how citizens coped with violence, identifying how urban space was transformed with the appearance of self-produced enclaves and abandoned buildings. The final product of the chapter will be one map, which reflects how 2007 violence wave left scars in the urban spatial layout. The fourth chapter, facing violence in Juarez, will try to understand to what extent the spatial strategies implemented by the national government contributed to decrease violence in Juarez, this will be presented by the mapping of the spatial interventions and their impact. The chapter will analyse the spatial interventions carried out by federal government to counterattack violence and its roots through the implementation of the program Todos Somos Juárez. This section will be supported by data collected through interviews with people involved on the program and site’s visit to the parks intervened. Later it will assess the impacts of the spatial interventions of the program on the scar-full urban space by overlapping the map of the ‘scars of violence’ and the map of spatial policies. Thus, this chapter will analyse the capability of the spatial policies carried out in Ciudad Juarez to accomplish their objectives, furthermore, it will highlight that spatial interventions were not focused on the deep socio spatial exclusion in the city, hence reducing the chances of the spatial intervention to succeed. Conclusively, this work emphasises two aspects, so far the implemented policies have not mind the scars of violence, a matter that needs to be considered as a physical transformation that may lead to increase the already strong socio spatial segregation. Another consideration is the importance of addressing socio-spatial segregation with an overall and long-term vision in public policies aimed to reduce violence in Ciudad Juarez, a city with an enormous social debt product of decades of government negligence.

In 2007 una crisi di violenza si scatenò nella città messicana Ciudad Juarez per la chiamata “guerra verso le droghe” cominciata per il governo federale che tornò la città in un campo di battaglia e fu peggiorata per l’aumento di disoccupazione dopo la crisi economica degli Stati Uniti. La dinamica seguì fino al 2010, quando arrivando al picco il governo nazionale e locale decidono di reagire e progettano politiche pubbliche per contenere la violenza e per combattere le sue radici. La violenza diminuì dopo il 2011 però i sui effetti rimangono percepibili, la città è stata frammentata per la comparsa di enclavi e è stata abbandonata a conseguenza della paura. Il seguente lavoro esplora la violenza urbana riconoscendola come un aspetto complesso risultato di forze globali e locali e si concentra sulle cause della violenza urbana radicate nella dimensione fisica della città. Così, presenta la situazione di violenza a Ciudad Juarez come parte di dinamiche contestuali di carettere culturale, sociale ed economiche che hanno costruito uno spazio fisico che rafforza la esclusione. Inoltre, l’analisi sviluppa un punto de visa critico verso gli impatti della violenza e la sua influenza nella trasformazione spaziale di Ciudad Juarez dal 2007 al 2011 e cerca di valuttare il modo in cui le strategie usate dal governo federale sono riuscite a ridurre la violenza approcciando le sue radici, specificamente dentro il programma “Todos Somos Juárez” (Tutti Siamo Juarez). I resultati dell’analisi descrivono interventi spaziali che hanno contribuito al suo contesto immediato però nella vista panoramica i risultati sono questionabili, innanzitutto, evidenziano strategie concepite dentro uno squema clientelare e interventi spaziali isolati mancanti di una visione olistica ed a lungo tempo. Finalmente, questo lavoro sottolinea due aspetti, il primo è la mancanza di politiche pubbliche che si rivolgano alle cicatrici spaziali che la violenza ha lasciato in Juarez. La seconda e la importanza di indirizzare la segregazione socio spaziale in modo complessivo dentro delle politiche pubbliche mirate a ridurre la violenza in Ciudad Juarez.