VIOLENCE HAS EP ON EDGE

Officials Work to Keep City's Image Intact

As the violence in Juarez continues -- two Texas residents were shot
and four Mexican police officers were killed last week -- some El
Pasoans are taking steps to ensure that they don't get caught in the
line of fire.

Although El Paso officials say there is no reason for El Pasoans to
worry, and city leaders are not concerned about the violence having an
impact on this side of the river, there are subtle indications that
the fallout from the brutal killing spree has already reached U.S.
soil:

- - Seats on the Border Jumper trolley don't fill up as quickly as they
once did.

- - A college graduate is looking to relocate because he doesn't want to
raise his children near a city where beheaded bodies are being found.

- - A Kansas family with roots in El Paso will not come to El Paso for
its annual summer vacation.

"I've been going to Juarez since 1963," said Kansas native and
resident Sam Pacheco, who has in-laws and friends in El Paso-Juarez.
"When we go, we usually stay in Juarez, not this year. We probably are
going to bring my mother-in-law to visit us in Kansas instead."

As the death toll rises to more than 420 people in Juarez, there are
no obvious signs that El Paso's reputation or economy are suffering
because of its sister-city ties to Juarez. But everyone, from
individuals to business leaders to scholars, acknowledges there is a
pressing problem in Juarez, one that may eventually lead to a
perception problem for El Paso.

"Every border community has to constantly work on its reputation and
on making itself attractive to those who don't live here," said
Irasema Coronado, a University of Texas at El Paso political science
professor.

"Today, just like with the femicides (the unsolved slayings of 300
women), when people find out I'm from El Paso, they say, 'Oh, my God,
that's where all the killings are.' We just have to work to change
their perspective."

For the second time this year, repercussions from the violence in
Mexico were felt in El Paso on Friday, when Thomason Hospital went on
high alert after two Mexican police officers, who were wounded by
gunfire in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, were admitted for treatment,
prompting El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar to call for
more federal and state intervention to deal with the drug-smuggling
problem.

"As violence escalates across the border, what seems to be a pattern
now the injured are being sent to El Paso, not necessarily only for
the health care but also they can be removed from the violent
situation. That should be a cause for tremendous concern for
everybody," Escobar said. "This is an issue that transcends Thomason
Hospital. This is an issue about a drug corridor where two nations
need to come together to solve a problem."

Whether the violence in Juarez is aimed at those in the drug trade or
not, Coronado said, El Paso must start playing up its positives to the
rest of the country.

"We need to focus the good things that do happen here," she said. "We
conduct our daily business, we live our lives, we visit family in
Juarez and nothing happens. And El Paso remains one of the safest
cities in the United States."

For the past five years, El Paso has been ranked either the first-,
second-or third-safest large city in the U.S., according to the FBI
crime index. El Paso County Sheriff Jimmy Apodaca said that the area's
law enforcement officials are monitoring the violence in Juarez daily
to ensure that nothing related to the killings over there occurs over
here.

"We do this by carefully checking and responding to every call we get
dispatched to," Apodaca said. "If it is related, we can easily
determine that and react."

Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce President Richard Dayoub said
chamber officers and employees have been able to go about their
business of selling El Paso because the Juarez violence has not been a
major topic anywhere they go.

"At this point and time I've had a few isolated calls from some of
those in the maquila industry expressing concerns for their employees
who are commuting from El Paso to Juarez every day," Dayoub said.
"They just want to know if there are some best practices they should
be taking into consideration."

There aren't, Dayoub said, as law enforcement officials have assured
everyone that they are monitoring the violence and that it is not
spilling into El Paso soon.

Only if the violence lingers will it start to have an impact on El
Paso's reputation, officials say.

"Even then, the length of the violence and its intensity will
determine what impact El Paso feels," Dayoub said. "It's all up to
speculation."

Because the violence is unpredictable, El Paso native Edward Guereque,
who has a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at El Paso,
is looking for work in another city, he said. He doesn't want to be
around to see whether the violence spills over.

"El Paso is nice," he said. "It's just the violence is getting bad in
Juarez. I don't want to raise my children where that type of violence
is happening. People are being beheaded over there, and we try to say
it doesn't affect us."

Manuel Ochoa, vice president of binational development for the El Paso
Regional Economic Development Corp., said El Paso hasn't been hurt by
the drug wars because the problem is nationwide in Mexico.

"If it were just Juarez, then we'd be worried," Ochoa said. "But this
is something that is happening all over Mexico, and in some areas it
is more cruel than in Juarez."

While El Paso's name may not be synonymous with the negatives in
Juarez right now, El Paso businessman Steven Silver said, the city
must be prepared to distance itself from Juarez in the future.

Silver is concerned that El Paso's tourism and economic development
entities are using the slogan "The Capital of the Border" throughout
the United States to sell El Paso.

"I think we need to at least be re-evaluating how we market
ourselves," said Silver. "We are calling ourselves the Capital of the
Border, but if the violence continues over there, is that what we want
to sell ourselves as?"