CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) – After a young Texan went on a shooting rampage that appeared to target Hispanics at a Walmart in El Paso, killing 22 people, including eight Mexican citizens, there were no protests on the other side of the Rio Grande in neighboring Ciudad Juarez, only a small vigil honoring all the dead.
Community leaders didn’t talk of boycotting El Paso, a city that depends heavily on Mexican shoppers. On the contrary, in the following days Mexicans have packed the international bridges going to jobs, stores and schools like always.
What fear some express about the attack is mixed with a practical concern that somehow the massacre may lead to longer wait times for entering El Paso.
Many like Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada pointed out that the attacker was from north Texas, not from the border community, and somehow that made the pain inflicted less personal.
“They see him like an external agent who looked for a place where the deadly effect of his act could have the greatest repercussions,” said Rodolfo Rubio Salas, a professor and researcher at Colegio de Chihuahua.