Juarez, Mexico, Live Webcam

More info: Ciudad Juarez is a city located on the Rio Grande in the state of northern Chihuahua. It is opposite El Paso in Texas to which it is connected by bridges. Together, the two cities form the one of the largest international border communities in the world.

During the 1920s the citys service sector grew as large numbers of American tourists crossed over the border to get around Prohibition and the city experienced a boom. However, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the economic problems of the city multiplied when thousands of Mexican labourers were deported there from the United States, increasing the population and the unemployment. For a greater part of the 20th century, workers from other parts of Mexico were attracted to the city by its relatively high wages and its proximity to the U.S. border.

Ciudad Juarez grew markedly since the 1970s, largely because of economic and legal incentives for maquiladoras (export-oriented assembly plants) Today, the city has a growing industrial centre and more than 300 "maquiladoras" located in and around the city. Discarded school buses from the US crisscross the city twice a day, delivering workers to and from their homes in the slums to their jobs at local factories.

Juárez has a long, notorious history of drug trafficking and the intense related violence.[21] Mexico's first homegrown cartel, run by Ignacia Jasso, was seated in the city

Low-paying jobs in Mexican factories are being lost to an even cheaper labour force in Honduras and China.