REGULAR U.S. VISITORS TO JUAREZ INSIST IT'S SAFE

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) - This border city has long been known as a
playground for American college students and servicemen, a place to buy
cheap prescriptions and liquor, drink beer and listen to mariachi music.

In recent years, though, it has gained a reputation for violence, with news
reports of shootings, murders of young women, and now, a mass grave.

It is a reputation that worries authorities in Juarez, where the economy
has become increasingly dependent on maquiladoras - assembly plants run
largely by U.S. companies - but continues to rely on tourism, too.

It's also a misperception, say many U.S. citizens who cross the border
regularly.

``If you're not tied in with drugs and things, you won't be bothered,''
said Hadley Robinson, 51, who lives across the border in El Paso, Texas,
crosses a couple of times a week to work on computer networks in
maquiladoras and sometimes brings his family on weekends to shop. ``I've
never had anything happen to me here.''

Last week, news broke of the discovery of a mass grave on the outskirts of
Juarez. The FBI and Mexican police are searching ranches where they believe
victims of the ruthless Juarez cartel were buried in the mid-1990s. A
former Mexican federal police officer told the FBI there may be 100 or more
bodies. So far, eight have been unearthed.

``We're conscious that news like this can have a negative effect on our
city,'' said city spokesman Javier de Anda Martinez. But he stressed that
the people buried at the ranch are believed to have had ties to the drug
trade, and said that the more than 30,000 people who live in El Paso and
cross daily are aware that the problem is not random violence against
Americans.

``When you hear about the number of bodies or people who have disappeared,
people may be misled to think this happens if you're walking on the street,
that people come and grab you, and that's not the case,'' de Anda said.

Mexican officials say the violence stems in part from the city's explosive
growth. Because of the U.S. economic boom, the number of maquiladora jobs
has more than doubled this decade, and some 40,000 people stream into the
city each year, bringing the population to 1.3 million.

``There's violence like there's violence in New York, like there's violence
in Mexico City,'' said Araceli Reveles, head of the Chihuahua state tourism
department in Juarez. ``Big cities that have industrial and economic
development have violence, but they also have development.''

De Anda and Robinson, among others, also blame Americans' drug appetite for
causing many of the city's problems. The U.S.-Mexican border is the world's
most lucrative drug corridor.

Nearly 2 1/2 years ago, a drug war engulfed the city in the wake of the
death of reputed cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Dozens were slain;
in one shooting at a restaurant, gunmen with semiautomatic weapons killed
six people.

Less than a year ago, international attention was drawn to Juarez with
reports of the sex murders of dozens of young women who were strangled or
stabbed and dumped in the desert. Many victims were recent maquiladora hires.

None of that will stop Rachel Newton, 28, of Alamogordo, N.M., from driving
an hour and a half to Juarez every couple of months for prescriptions,
liquor and gifts.

Ms. Newton, a public defender, said she is not afraid because ``I'm not
going to be messing with drug dealers'' and because she used to live in a
gang-infested area of Washington.

``I was much more nervous there than I ever am here,'' she said during a
recent shopping trip to Juarez's City Market, where vendors hawk everything
from blankets and chiles to knockoff watches and pottery.

Some American tourists say while they will continue to visit Juarez, their
biggest concern is being stopped by the police, who are known to demand
bribes for traffic violations.

Relatives of many of the nearly 200 people who disappeared from Juarez
between 1993 and 1997 say their loved ones were taken away by men dressed
in police or military uniforms.

``It makes you wonder about the police, if you can trust the police,''
Lucinda Noyes, 44, of El Paso said during a visit to Juarez last weekend.
``But we still came. My mother-in-law wanted to go shopping.''

Others, like Analisa Sonora of El Paso, said they come less frequently or
not at all because they fear getting caught in the cross fire.

Ms. Sonora, a 24-year-old college student, said she has no connection to
the drug trade, but ``it doesn't really matter, because you could be
targeted by accident - the kind of car you're driving, the clothes you're
wearing.''

De Anda, the city spokesman, said the best measure of protection is common
sense: ``One thing I've always said is I'll never get into a dark alley at
night, regardless of which country I'm in.''