Pope's Mexico trip to include Ciudad Juarez, once the 'murder capital of the world'

Pope Francis is exploring the possibility of visiting the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, where a battle between drug cartels during the past four years has cost more than 10,000 lives.

The Vatican's papal planning team, along with representatives of the Mexican Government, said during their preparations that there was a good chance that the Pope could visit the city which was once known as the "murder capital of the world".

The visit would include meeting with community leaders, priests and seminarians and a visit to a prison that was once thought to have the worst conditions in Latin America.

"The probability is very high that he comes to Juarez," said Father Hesiquio Trevizo, spokesman for the Diocese of Ciudad Juarez.

Mexican church officials say Pope Francis will arrive on 12 February in the world's second-most populous Catholic country, for the first time.

Planning teams have also visited Mexico City, Morelia in the western state of Michoacan, and Chiapas in southern Mexico, according to press reports and statements from the Mexican bishops' conference.

Any visit to Ciudad Juarez would enhance the possibility of Francis being able to cross from the Mexican border city into neighbouring El Paso, in Texas, in an act of solidarity with migrants - a trip he had hoped to carry out during his recent visit to the United States. 

A woman prays at a memorial for eight women found murdered in the border town of Ciudad Juarez (PA)

Pope Francis has previously said he wanted to visit Ciudad Juarez in 2015 and cross the border into neighboring El Paso, Texas, in an act of solidarity with migrants, many of whom transit Mexico in attempts to reach the United States.

Father Trevizo said such a crossing is unlikely during next year's  visit.

He said the border visit would be for a day and expressed hopes the papal visit would "reinforce the faith" in a city with growing non-Catholic congregations and still scarred by the violence erupting after rival cartels disputed a coveted drug-trafficking corridor.

Back in 2010, at the height of cartel violence, the city averaged almost nine killings a day. It was also the epicentre for an epidemic of extreme violence against women in Mexico: conservative estimates by the UN suggest that 27,000 young women from poor backgrounds have gone missing in the country in the last decade. 

Now local officials are saying that the city is much safer, and plans are underway to lure foreign tourists - particularly Americans who used to come in their tens of thousands - back to Juarez. Early this year the city launched a tourism campaign entitled, "Juarez is Waiting for You".

"It's a city that has experienced conflicts," he said. "It's lived through deep crises such as the killing of so many women, the war against drug trafficking, which left more lives lost than a traditional war."

The economy has bounced back, despite its factory-based businesses suffering decimation during the world economic crisis in 2008, but the conditions in the maquiladoras, as the export factories are known, are not always ideal, and priests say that the conditions led to situations of both parents working long hours to make ends meet, while children were left alone and vulnerable.

A cache of guns seized on the streets of Ciudad Juarez by the Mexican army (PA)

"There is plenty of work, but it's poorly paid," said Father Roberto Luna, pastor at the Corpus Christi Parish, where crime was so bad that thieves stole the church bell.

"People worry about losing their jobs, but, at the same time, they're looking to make more," he added.

Violence has diminished to the point Ciudad Juarez, with a population of 1.3 million, registered just 17 murders in October, though priests caution the issue is not entirely resolved.

The local prison, where a riot left 18 dead in 2011, is also being renovated to eliminate issues such as overcrowding and inmates running the institution.

"Violence has increased in other parts of Mexico," Father Luna told CNS. "It has has taken attention away from Juarez."