How once-feared Mexico City has become the country’s safest spot
Benilde Alvarez shut the lights and locked herself and her young daughters in their bedrooms. The machine gun fire from a shootout could be heard all night near their home in Morelia, Michoacán about four hours west of Mexico City. By the next morning Ms. Alvarez had decided to move her family from the drug-torn city where she’d been raised.
But Alvarez did not follow the lead of other families who have sought refuge from drug-related violence by heading to the United States. The mother of three picked up and went to Mexico City – a place once thought to be among the most dangerous in the country.
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Five thousand business owners moved their wares to Mexico City in 2010 to escape extortion and other crimes that have hurt their ventures, according to Coparmex, the city’s association of businesses.
Most of the businessmen fled from states along the US border, says Coparmex head Juan De Dios Barba. Half of the 5,000 were returning to Mexico City after having abandoned the capital when it was considered unsafe in past years, when the city registered a loss rather than a net gain of businesses, Mr. Barba says.
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Experts warn that isolated bloodshed – such as the murder of a family of five and a firefight that left six youths dead in the dicey Tepito neighborhood in October, could be signs of trouble ahead. And the greater metropolitan area surrounding Mexico City has been the site of brutal cartel murders and widespread protection rackets, where school teachers are forced to pay fines or risk attacks against their students. [emphasis added]
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I knew teachers were forced to hand over their Christmas bonuses, but I didn’t know their students were threatened. Can you imagine being a teacher under those circumstances?