Curious Detroit depiction in novel

I'm reading 2666, the massive magnum opus by Mexican/Spanish novelist Roberto Bolaño. It's pretty wild. The central theme is the ongoing killings of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which is called Santa Teresa in the book. But it goes all over the map, introducing a series of individuals whose lives converge on that city. One is a black journalist named Oscar Fate, who visits Detroit on an assignment before being drawn to Santa Teresa. In Detroit, he covers a lecture/sermon at a church by a former Black Panther named Barry Seaman, who has turned to writing cookbooks, including one called Eating Ribs with Barry Seaman.

The descriptions of Detroit aren't particularly evocative, and they make me wonder whether Bolaño ever visited the city at all. He talks about a residential neighborhood filled with five- and six-story buildings, which would describe very few places in the city. Yet, like everything else in the book, this section is highly readable. I wonder what gave him the idea of including Detroit at all. Did anyone ever meet him here? Other parts of the book take place in Mexico, all over Europe, in Chile, and probably other places--I'm still less than halfway through!