Riot on an empty street

Chihuahua is known since two years as one of the most dangerous places in Mexico and in the world. A gang war in the cities of Juárez and in Chihuahua (both in the State of Chihuahua) is seen as the main reason for this wave of violence, but the real problem is the increasing drug consumption in the United States.

I was born in Chihuahua in November 1978 and during my childhood I was able to play on the streets, run in the parks and even talk to strangers on the street; Chihuahua in the 1980´s was an old-fashioned city, where every morning the milkman delivered milk bottles in front of your door.

Since September 1996 I live abroad and travel to Chihuahua once a year; only in 2008 and 2009 I was twice in my hometown. In 2008, when the gang-war started, I felt unsecure for the first time. I remember that when I was in high school (in the early 1990´s), if I saw an expensive pimped-car I thought it was owned by a gangster, but since last year, whenever I see a pimped car, I get scared and prepare myself for a shooting. But I have been lucky and never experienced a crime in my life, not even when I lived Managua.

At the moment I am in Chihuahua, but have the feeling that I am in Europe: The big avenues (with 6 and 8 lanes) are very quiet, people drive respectfully, respect the speed limit and they never use the horn. Although it is almost May, it is not hot at all, it rains constantly and the temperature is perfect (21 C degrees during the day, 10 C degrees at night). But the weirdest thing of all is that last night it snowed 9 cm in two cities in Chihuahua.

But Chihuahua is not on the old continent and everything has an explanation: The nice weather is probably a result of global warming and the quietness in the streets is because the entire city is afraid of meeting the wrong person. I enjoy being here and everything is quite and nice, but I am also afraid that something may happen, I don´t know what.

Well, greetings to all of you from one of the world´s most violent cities, which appears to me as one of the quietest.