Notes from Ciudad Juarez

2011 Emergency Fund photographer Teun Voeten is sending us images from his project in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where over 3000 people were killed last year in drug cartel violence.

April 2011. Children practice Lucha Libre at a school in Ciudad Juarez. Lucha Libre is a popular sport that combines acrobatics, performance, and wrestling.

Teun Voeten participated in Mexico’s independence day parade in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan.

Statue of Santa Muerte in a chapel of patron sints of drug traffickers, Jesus Malverde. Malverde was a small criminal who was killed by Mexican authorities in 1909. He reached Robin Hood status among the population and became the Patron Saint of drug traffickers. In a chapel devoted to him, many people make a pilgrimmage and say thanks for succesful criminal endeavours.