3,000 dead, 230,000 fled - cost of the drugs war in one Mexican city

The mother of four pointed out abandoned and stripped concrete homes and counted how many families have fled her street alone in the Western Hemisphere's deadliest city.

"One, two, three, four, here, and two more there on the next block," said Laura Longoria, 34.

She ran a convenience store in her working-class neighbourhood in Mexico's Ciudad Juarez until the owners closed up, fed up with the tribute they were forced to pay to drug gangsters to stay in business.

Her family vowed to stick it out. But then a teenager from a stationery shop across the street was kidnapped. Ms Longoria's husband, Enrique Mondragon, requested a transfer from the bus company where he works.

"They asked, 'Where to?"' he recalled. "I said, 'Anywhere."'

No-one knows how many residents have left the city of 1.4 million since a turf battle over border drug corridors unleashed an unprecedented wave of murders and mayhem. Business leaders say the exodus could number 110,000. A municipal group and a local university say it is closer to 230,000.

Long controlled by the Juarez cartel, the city descended into a horrifying cycle of violence after Mexico's most-wanted kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and his Sinaloa cartel tried to shoot their way to power here beginning in 2008. Nearly 10,000 troops were sent in to restore order.

Now, the army and federal authorities are going door-to-door, conducting an emergency census to determine just how many residents have fled. Many people refuse to answer their questions for fear authorities are collecting information so they can begin extorting money from residents - just like the drug gangs. "Soon there won't be many people left to count," Ms Longoria said.

While many fleeing Juarez residents seek more peaceful points in Mexico, others have streamed over the border to the Texas city of El Paso, population 740,000, where apartment vacancies are down and requests for new utility services in recently purchased or rented houses have risen, according to Mayor John Cook.

In Juarez, massacres, beheadings, YouTube videos featuring cartel torture sessions and even car bombs are becoming commonplace. More than 3,000 people were killed there last year, according to the federal government, making it among the most dangerous places on earth.

El Paso, by contrast, had just three violent deaths.

Juarez Chamber of Commerce president Daniel Murguia said at least 6,000 city businesses closed last year, according to Mexican Interior Ministry figures.

One Mexican-American, aged 50, who did not wish to be named, owns a factory in Juarez but moved to El Paso with his family after he was kidnapped last year.He was held in a Juarez safe house but managed to untie his hands and cry for help loudly enough to be heard by neighbours, who called the Mexican army to rescue him.

"There's a lot of people afraid. Even if they haven't had a bad experience, they don't want to be the next to have one, so they run away," said the factory owner. He said he will never move back but hopes Juarez will one day calm enough to visit. "It's a city that's dying," he said.

Many of those who have not left want to, including Marta Elena Ramirez. She owns a restaurant in the city. She said sales are down 50 per cent since 2007, when Americans used to head south for drinking and clubbing. Now they are too afraid to come.

Though she has held US residency for 18 years, Ramirez, 65, lives in Juarez and had never considered moving - until now.

"I've always been a fighter, and this is my Juarez. I've always said, 'No matter what happens, Juarez is mine,"' she said. "But too much has happened."