WP - Tijuana Strip Turns Ghostly In Wake of Drug Violence. As Tourists Increasingly Shun Mexico's Border Cities, Many Businesses Can't Survive.

From my archive of press clippings:

Washington Post

Tijuana Strip Turns Ghostly In Wake of Drug Violence. As Tourists Increasingly Shun Mexico's Border Cities, Many Businesses Can't Survive.

By Manuel Roig-Franzia

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, June 16, 2008; Page A15

TIJUANA, Mexico -- A shop on Avenida Revolucion was once considered a surefire gold mine.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Daylight gun battles, beheadings and kidnappings have scared away tourists, forced layoffs and turned some areas of once-vibrant Mexican border cities into virtual ghost towns.

The drug wars, which have killed more than 6,000 people in the past 2 1/2 years, have accelerated a decline that merchants also blame on the U.S. economic slowdown and delays at the border because of increased enforcement.

In Tijuana, where at least 200 people have been killed in drug violence this year, merchants say tourism is down as much as 90 percent compared with 2005, when an estimated 4 million people visited."

"The downturn has had less obvious consequences, even endangering public health.

In Tijuana's now mostly empty strip clubs, prostitutes have grown so desperate that they are increasingly willing to engage in risky behavior such as having unprotected sex."

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"Mexican tourism officials are alarmed and have accused Mexican and U.S. media of exaggerating the violence."