On September 25, 1964, Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos and United States President Lyndon B. Johnson walked to the top of the international bridge that connects Juarez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas, and shook hands. Their gesture of friendship during the Cold War officially ended a 100-year -old boundary dispute between Mexico and the United States.
The Chamizal conflict began with the changing course of the Rio Grande during the time of Benito Juårez and Abraham Lincoln. They were contemporaries and great men, who led their countries during wartime. Benito Juårez took refuge at Paso del Norte in 1865-66 during the French Intervention. On September 16, 1888, villagers renamed their town Ciudad Juårez in honor of their distinguished guest.
A bronze monument honoring Abraham Lincoln was placed near the Parque El Chamizal in Ciudad Juårez as a part of the Chamizal Treaty in 1964 and as a symbol of unity. Yet the United States never reciprocated by erecting a monument to Benito Juårez at the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso UNTIL NOW.
