5/3/21

By Allan Mestel

Juarez, Mexico. This how El Paso looks from the Mexican side of the border on the banks of the Rio Grande. Our host Kary Bre took us down to see the activist graffiti art underneath the Paso del Norte bridge. Kary runs a shelter for migrants who have been denied entry in the US or expelled under Title 42. A huge number of these vulnerable people fall victim to the cartels and are kidnapped, trafficked and raped. Everywhere in Juarez (literally everywhere) you see pink crosses painted on walls, fences, posts, boulders by the roadside, Each one of these crosses marks the spot where a murdered woman was found. One of the works of art we saw was created by an activist friend of Kary's who was murdered by the cartel at age 27. We were eventually intercepted by a truck full of soldiers with automatic weapons who escorted us out of the riverbed.