Ciudad Juárez (2000 population 1,142,354) is a city in Chihuahua, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, USA. It is the major port of entry and transportation center of north central Mexico and the fifth largest city in México. It is a growing industrial center, with numerous maquiladoras (assembly plants).
Juárez was founded as El Paso del Norte (the pass of the north) in 1659 by Spanish explorers, seeking a route through the southern Rocky Mountains. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande as the border between Mexico and the United States, separating settlements on the north bank of the river from the rest of the town.
During the French Intervention in Mexico (1862–1867), El Paso del Norte served as a temporary capital of Benito Juárez's republican forces. In 1888, El Paso del Norte was renamed in honor of Juárez.
Juárez again served as a provisional Mexican capital during the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution, when forces loyal to opposition candidate Francisco I. Madero, led by Pancho Villa, seized the city (20 November 1910). The scene of intense fighting for a decade, Juárez recovered during the United States Prohibition era (1919-1933) as an entertainment center. Juárez continued to attract tourists from the southwest USA during the 1940s and 1950s, with its bars, nightclubs, bullfighting, and shopping.
El Paso (top) and Ciudad Juárez (bottom) as seen from earth orbit; the
Rio Grande River is the thin line separating the two cities through the middle of the photograph. A portion of the
Franklin Mountains can be seen in the upper-left. Image courtesy of NASA.
Juárez has grown substantially in recent decades, and now has extensive areas of slum housing. Juárez has gained further notoriety as a major center of narcotics trafficking, and for several hundred unsolved murders of young women since the early 1990s. As a result, Juárez has declined as a center of tourism, and now functions mostly as a industrial and commercial center.
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