Juarez: Unintended Consequences

Federico Ziga, the president of the National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry and Comdiments (CANIRAC), recently told El Proceso that most of the narco-violence in Juarez happens in or around restaurants. Their battles have destroyed businesses, economically and quite literally. Few items are salvageable when it rains lead. But since thousands of soldiers and federal police have arrived, there has been peace - the goal - and at least one unintended consequence: economic stimulus. According to El Proceso, each soldier spends roughly US$2.00 a day on food and other items. With at least 5,000 soldiers in town, small and mid-sized restauranteurs enjoy a daily injection of some US$10,000 - multiply that by six months (the time period many believe that the soldiers will be in place), and we have a back of the envelop guesstimate of the soldiers' impact on the local economy, roughly US$1.8 million. This is not counting the hundreds of federal police who stay in hotels, eat a nicer restaurants, and generally speaking tend to spend more money. Juarez is at peace, for now, and her restauranteurs are doubly rewarded.