The Juarez
Valley on the Mexico-Texas border, a forty mile stretch of cotton fields
and ghost towns, is so dangerous that even the police don't dare to
enter.
Situated
to the east of Juarez City – a town which held the title of the world's
most violent for three consecutive years – the criminal cartels in
'Murder Valley' run drugs, weapons and illegal immigrants across the
border, murdering in cold blood anyone who interferes with their
business.
Today
the Juarez Valley, which runs along the Rio Grande and is just a
stone's throw from the eighteen-foot fence on the US border, sees more
death and violence than anywhere else in North America. It has even been
suggested that it could be the deadliest place on Earth
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Death: Gravestones line the streets of Juarez City, where kidnap and murder are a daily reality
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Ghost town: The town of Pradexis Guadalupe is virtually devoid of life, after years of brutal gang rule
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Fear: Residents are too afraid to walk the streets, for fear they will be kidnapped and tortured
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Derelict: The metal shutters on many buildings remain closed all year round, and the majority of the shops have been abandoned
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Gang rule: This gangland graffiti means that a member of the local cartel has killed two people at this spot
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Decay: The industry along Murder Valley used to be booming with cotton picking businesses
'You
get used to seeing dead bodies in the streets', Alejandro Montes, an
employee at the only petrol station in the town of Praxedis Guadalupe,
told MailOnline.
'If
you're away from your home and you hear gunshots then you could end up
dead', he said. 'I've lost a lot of friends who were either caught in
the crossfire or worse - they had spoken out against the criminals'.
The
last of Praxedis Guadalupe's police officers were executed in 2009 by
the controlling Sinaloa Cartel; they have never been replaced.
The
Sinaloa cartel is currently thought to be under the control of a drug
lord named Zambada, who replaced 'El Chapo' Guzman following his arrest
early last year.
A
community vigilante force subsequently established itself in the area,
but following the kidnapping, torture and beheading of its chief Manuel
Castro, the residents have lived in fear of the brutal treatment
reserved for community heroes.
'The
narcos, rather than the police, have become the authority in The
Valley,' said Alejandro. 'If you want to survive, you have to live by
their rules'.
Today,
Juarez Valley averages 160 murders per 100,000 residents annually
according to the authorities in San Agustin, the only town in the region
with any police presence at all.
The valley was once home to a 60,000-strong community. Today only around five thousand of the original residents remain.
The
rest have either fled or fallen victim to the cartel violence. Murder
rates are higher in the region due to the cartels battling over
territory - thugs arrive from elsewhere to kill each other in the
streets
The town of
Praxedis Guadalupe looks like the set of a horror film, and for many of
the residents of the region the lives they lead are not far away from
the image of gang violence that Hollywood presents.
Every
building on the town's main street makes some form of testimony to the
violence they have witnessed. The metal shutters remain closed on the
buildings' windows year-round, and the majority of the shops have been
abandoned.
To get access to the town's only pharmacy, you have to state your business at the armoured front door's intercom.
Throughout
the town one sees burned-down houses where only the charred wooden
beams still stand, bullet-ridden road signs, graffiti indicating the
sites of murders, holes blasted in the sides of abandoned homes.
'In San Agustin we see on average two murders a day,' Police Supervisor Umberto Mata told MailOnline.
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Gruesome: Eight men were executed in
Juarez City in 2010. It was part of the wave of violence in the city -
that was eventually the subject of a police crackdown - but the killings
just moved to murder valley
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Danger: The 40-mile long fence separating Juarez Valley from Texas has apparently made matters worse
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'Murder capital': There are 160 murders per 100,000 residents annually according to the authorities in San Agustin (pictured)
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Wanted
woman: Marta Armas (pictured), the only female police officer in the
region says she will be tortured and killed if she's ever caught by the
drug cartels
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Gun fights: Police Supervisor Umberto Mata (pictured) digs up a collection of bullets buried in the sand
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Lawless: The gun battles in the area have raged for so long, the bullets have become rusty
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'No man's land': San Agustin is the
most westerly town in 'Murder Valley', and battle lines between
government forces and narco-traffickers lie in Praxedis Guadalupe
Supervisor Mata has seen many fellow officers die during his seven years in the Juarez region.
He
added: 'The residents tend to stay indoors because of the violence. If
on the rare occasion you do see someone in the street, they're probably
one of the narco assassins'.
San
Agustin is the most westerly town in 'Murder Valley', and battle lines
between government forces and narcotraffickers lie in the No Man's Land
between the next town to the east, Praxedis Guadalupe.
'We
don't go past the limits of the town,' Supervisor Mata, who saw action
in Juarez City during the period of greatest violence, told MailOnline.
'It's simply too dangerous.
I've busted enough of the thugs driving through our town with drugs and weapons for a price to go on my head
'I'm
a wanted woman three kilometres east of here,' said Marta Armas, the
only female police officer on the San Agustin force. 'I've busted enough
of the thugs driving through our town with drugs and weapons for a
price to go on my head.
'If I step out of bounds here, it'll be torture before they kill me. That's how they deal with police officers on their side.'
The narco-traffickers who terrorise the region forbid the residents to talk to the authorities on pain of death.
'I
can't talk about the terrible things they've done to me', one old woman
with tears in her eyes told MailOnline. 'My husband and two sons are
dead because of them. If I'm seen talking to a journalist I'll be dead
within the hour.
'If
I'm required to leave my office to visit another station in the
valley', said Mario Fernandez, who runs the Mexican immigration
checkpoint in Guadalupe, 'then I will cross into the United States and
re-enter at the border I need to visit.
'If the narcos smell even the slightest hint of government forces or authority along the main road, there will be death.'
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Lucky ones: Alejandro Montes (pictured) still refuses to move away from the area because his family remain
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Terrified: Juan Valdez (pictured) says he sees ghosts in a local disco, where three women were killed in 2010
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Tragedy: 'Roses Disco' (pictured), now completely abandoned - its floors covered with dog and pigeon faeces
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Apparition: Locals claim the ghost of
one of the murdered girls - wearing a blood-stained dress - appears
inside the disco (pictured) at night
The
construction of the eighteen-foot tall fence along the US-Mexico border
by the American authorities seven years ago made the situation worse
for many residents of Juarez Valley, they say.
Frustrated
by the heightened security and greater difficulty of crossing into the
United States, many of the narco-traffickers turned to kidnapping and
extortion within the local community in order to continue earning.
The
17-year-old daughter of a pharmacy owner in the valley had been
kidnapped on the day before MailOnline arrived in his town. He asked to
remain anonymous for fear of repercussions.
This
morning we had a phone call from her captors. They made us listen to
her being raped down the telephone, before demanding four thousand
dollars by the end of the week
'They
came in the night to our house and took her from her bed,' he said,
speaking with tears in his eyes of his awful experience. 'We were held
at gunpoint in our own room while they took her.
'This
morning we had a phone call from her captors. They made us listen to
her being raped down the telephone, before demanding four thousand
dollars by the end of the week.'
Many
residents in the area have been the victims of kidnapping, and say that
the tactics of the kidnappers are very difficult to deal with.
'If
you agree to a ransom price too quickly then the kidnappers will raise
it,' said one man, whose father was the victim of kidnapping from which
he never returned.
His
father was found decapitated three weeks after he disappeared from a
restaurant where he had flashed too much money under the noses of a
group of cartel members.
'They send you pictures of the person being mutilated, and tell you the more you delay the worse they will be', said his son.
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Murdered: Shallow graves are dug for dead bodies, which one resident says 'you get used to seeing' in the streets
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Forgotten: Many of the buildings in Praxedis Guadalupe have been abandoned for years
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Deadly transition: As authorities gained control of nearby Juarez City, the drug dealers and cartels moved into Juarez Valley
The
murder was never reported by the Juarez newspapers, nor was the crime
ever solved by police investigators, who many residents claim ignore
much of the horrors in the valley as they concentrate on Juarez City.
'There
were eight other kidnappings in the valley that week', said his son.
'How can we expect results when the police don't even come here
anymore?'
Kidnap
victims in Murder Valley rarely return to their families. 'It's easier
for the cartels to kill them rather than instigate any sort of revenge
plan when they return', he said.
Even
if I find a police officer who is honest and tell him my problem, the
narcos will find out I have been talking and then kill me
Son of kidnap and murder victim
'I
can't go to the federal police', he added. 'They have the reputation of
being involved with the criminals here. Even if I find a police officer
who is honest and tell him my problem, the narcos will find out I have
been talking and then kill me'.
'The
federal police in this town are the ones who make trouble for the
locals', said the young man, who continues to live with his widowed
mother. 'They have no respect for anyone and beat me up if I do anything
they don't like'.
In
2008, the Sinaloa cartel (run by 'El Chapo' Guzman who last year was
detained by Mexican authorities) declared war on the Juarez cartel,
leading to an explosion of gang violence in Juarez City.
As
El Paso's neighbour soaked up the world's attention, few noticed the
savagery being committed just ten miles to the east, in a farming region
carved out of the Sinaloan desert.
As
the authorities began to take control of the city again in 2012, much
of the business of borderland narco-trafficking moved into the Juarez
Valley.
Many
residents of the valley fled as a result of the violence. The sudden
drop in manpower put an end to local industry, and today unemployment
rates are high.
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To get access to the town's only pharmacy, you have to state your business at the armoured front door's intercom.
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Wasted: Conditions in the valley's fields are perfect for cotton production, but farming produces little reward
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Extorted: One kilo of raw cotton sells for just ten pence, and labourers are paid less than ten per cent of the profits
Although
the valley's arid fields and intense sunlight produces perfect
conditions for cotton agriculture – indeed, the valley's cotton has been
said to rival that produced in Egypt – farming produces little reward.
One
kilo of raw cotton sells for just ten pence, and labourers are paid
less than ten per cent of the profits for a back-breaking day's work in
which they may pick two hundred kilograms.
When
people are desperate and haven't been able to feed their family for
months, the cartels offer them money to kill people, and they take it
'Many
people from the region, or who come here from other parts of he
country, end up working as killers for the cartel', says Supervisor Mata
(whose surname translates to Supervisor Kill).
'When
people are desperate and haven't been able to feed their family for
months, the cartels offer them money to kill people, and they take it.
'Other
people arrive here from other parts of Mexico thinking that by working
for the cartel they will eventually become a powerful drug lord,' he
said.
'This
makes it difficult because anyone here could secretly be a narco
assassin. In other troubled parts of Mexico such as Michoacan, the
government have records of who the gang members are.
Here we have no idea because new killers are recruited just as soon as the previous ones are killed or arrested.
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Grief: Relatives comfort the daughters
of Rose Esther during her wake in Praxedis Guadelupe in 2010 after she
was killed when gunmen opened fire on three buses on the way back from a
factory
'At
one point last year I was talking to an eighty-year old man I had
pitied for his frailty. When I asked to conduct a routine search he
pulled a gun on me. It's the fact that you never know who you're dealing
with makes this area so dangerous.'
'We
see a lot of ghosts', said Juan Valdez, a Praxedis resident who gave
his name as a famous Colombian coffee brand in order to remain
anonymous, 'especially in the old disco.'
In 2010 there was a terrible shooting in the town's 'Roses Disco', during which three young girls were killed.
The
building is now completely abandoned, much like the rest of the town's
entertainment businesses. The floors are covered with the faeces of the
pigeons and stray dogs which now inhabit the building, and the locals
claim that in the evenings the ghost of one of the murder girls appears
in a blood-stained dress, watching silently from the main entrance.
'I
haven't moved away because my family lives here,' says Alejandro Montes
who has seen many friends die as a result of the violence. 'It's
possible to make a life for yourself here, it's just a different set of
laws to what apply elsewhere.
'If you stay out of the narcos' way you'll survive,' he smiles. 'Just duck out of sight when you hear bullets.'
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