The city notorious as the most dangerous in the hemisphereis throwing a party to tell the world that life here is getting better.
Borrowing an idea from Tijuana, another violence-plaguedborder city, Ciudad Juarez on Thursday was opening a 16-day festival of concerts,ballet and speeches by figures such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giulianiand former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev.
Organizers want to catch the world's eye at a moment whenthe fearsome local crime rate is plunging, down about 50 percent over the lastsix months.
"We want to show the world it's not true what peoplesay, that this is a hamlet of terror ... that this is a 'Mad Max' place,"said spokesman Sergio Armendariz, spokesman for the event known as JuarezCompetitiva — "Competitive Juarez."
Organizers also hope the event will help attract as many as45 investment projects totaling as much as $10 billion, said the president ofJuarez Competitiva, Carlos Chavira during a visit to Washington, D.C. topromote the event.
"It may seem like a lot, but it's doable in a city with200,000 industry-related jobs," Chavira added.
City officials know it will take time to convince outsidersthat Juarez is safe. In a recent press conference, officials announced thatnone of the big-name guests would have to stay in Juarez after dark; they candrive back across the border and sleep in El Paso, Texas, one of the safestcities in the U.S.
Even the guest list of visiting CEOs is being kept secretbecause of "the distrust our country engenders, the fear that CiudadJuarez provokes," said Jose Luis Armendariz, president of the area'sassociation of assembly-for-export plants and no relation to the spokesman.
But he said the mere fact they are visiting at all is a stepin the right direction.
"Let's open the door, show the house and from there Ithink we will gain their trust," he said. Getting rid of the stigmaassociated with the city "is the purpose of the event."
Drug gangs brought that stigma by using the city of 1.3million as a stage for their battle to control a major route for contrabandacross the border. Nearly 8,900 people have been killed in drug violence in thecity since 2008, when the battle heated up between the Sinaloa and Juarezcartels.
The same close border also has made Juarez a manufacturinghub for companies that ship goods to the world's largest market. Few companiesclosed because of the violence, but many top managers moved to El Paso,managing largely by videoconference and holding important meetings on thenorthern side of the frontier.
Some in Juarez are skeptical of the festival. WillivaldoDelgadillo, a writer and human rights activist, said any attempt to show thepeaceful side of the city is doomed from the moment guests refuse to sleephere. He also criticized plans to draw more investment in assembly plants thathe said offer "low-paying jobs but no careers or a future to theyouth."
Juarez Competitiva is an almost play-by-play copy of TijuanaInnovadora, a festival in that border city to celebrate a similar decrease inviolence in 2010.
"If what they did yielded results, we take it and tryto improve it. This is inspired by Tijuana," said Jose Luis Armendariz.
But Juarez lacks some of Tijuana's advantages.
Tijuana Innovadora was held at a modern cultural center surroundedby upscale restaurants and shops in the tree-lined Rio Zone. That city has longhad a vibrant arts scene and boasts several chefs who have gained celebrity forMediterranean-infused Mexican cuisine. A new strip of trendy clubs isflourishing downtown.
While Tijuana spreads across balmy hills along the PacificOcean, Juarez is a desert city that fronts on a concrete-lined strip of the RioGrande. Tijuana became famous for drawing Hollywood stars to drink, gamble andget divorced in the 1920s and 1930s. The grittier Juarez attracted lessglamorous types to its clubs and cantinas.
Juarez is making efforts to catch up. Much of JuarezCompetitiva will be held at a newly built center that eventually will become amodern children's museum. As the city tries to shake off its reputation forviolence, it is planning a new baseball stadium and a remodeled horse racetrackto draw visitors. Locals say business is slowly picking up at restaurants andbars that were deserted at night six months ago.
One thing the two cities have in common is a spell withPolice Chief Julian Leyzaola.
Ciudad Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia this year hired Leyzaola,a retired army lieutenant colonel who was credited with helping pacify Tijuanaby purging bad officers and building close ties with the military.
His presence has been accompanied by a declining murderrate. August saw the fewest homicides in Juarez in 26 months, and half thetotal for March, though 121 homicides for a month is still a frightening figurefor many visitors.
Some say violence in both cities dropped because one of thewarring cartels was weakened. In Tijuana, government attacks and arrestsseverely hurt the local Arellano Felix Cartel. In Juarez, the U.S. and Mexicangovernments have caught leaders of the La Linea and Barrio Azteca groups thatwork for the Juarez cartel.
Last year, Juarez had a murder rate about 230 murders per100,000 inhabitants. The same rate for the U.S. was 4.8. For Mexico overall, itwas 18.
Carjacking is down 50 percent from January and extortion andkidnappings are also trending down.
Leyzaola isn't shy about claiming some of the credit. Askedif he was repeating his success in Tijuana, Leyzaola grinned and said,"No, this is different. I've done in Juarez in six months what took me twoyears to do in Tijuana."
While Tijuana is calmer than it was a few years ago, whenrival drug gangs terrified residents with daytime shootouts, beheadings andcorpses hung from freeway bridges, drug-fueled killings are still common. Thatcity of 1.5 million had 820 murders last year, compared to 664 in 2009. Thepace has dropped sharply so far this year, with 382 through September.
But as workers hurried through final preparations Wednesday,14 people, including three state police investigators and a local policeofficer, were reported killed in eight separate incidents. For Juarez, evenprogress means a projected toll of about 2,000 killings this year.