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Border States Create A New Binational Community
Lourdes Cardenas
Chihuahua Governor Cesar Duarte (right) address an audience of business leaders gathered at the Santa Teresa Airport in southern New Mexico. He and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez (left) announced their states will work together to build a new binational community.
The neighboring border states of New Mexico and Chihuahua are working together to build a binational community unlike any other in the Southwest.
The plan is centered around an industrial complex arising outside the town of Santa Teresa in Southern New Mexico.
In a joint appearance at the Santa Teresa airport Friday, Chihuahua Governor Cesar Duarte and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez announced their plans for the binational community.
In the last five years factories have sprung up in this desolate stretch of desert outside Santa Teresa. Much of the development was spurred after the Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn set up shop on the Mexican side of the border.
Now Union Pacific is building a $400 million rail facility on the American side, thanks to a fuel tax incentive offered by the state of New Mexico.
Jerry Pacheco, vice president the Border Industrial Association in New Mexico, said the next step is to add a residential and commercial component.
"We're master planning a border city," he said. "Everything from the roads are going to have a common name on both sides of the border. Both of our governments are committed to going and installing infrastructure."
In the next decade Pacheco said this sparsely populated area could attract up to 20,000 residents. Together Chihuahua and New Mexico have some 70,000 acres of land to develop, according to Martinez.
Martinez said the state will invest $3.2 million to upgrade the local waste water treatment plant to support the new development. Construction has already begun on 1,000 new homes, an airport hotel and a duty free shop.
Assistant Port Director Jesus Luis Chavez said the the Santa Teresa Port of Entry averages 350 commercial vehicle crossings a day.