Clinics in Violent Mexican City to Turn Away Gunshot Victims

The Latin American Herald Tribune ^ | August 20,2009

[Stoat]

Clinics in Violent Mexican City to Turn Away Gunshot Victims
 

CIUDAD JUAREZ – Private clinics in Ciudad Juarez, the scene of a bloody turf war between rival drug cartels, are refusing to treat victims of gunshot wounds due to the risk to their staff and other patients.

Representatives of the clinics told authorities during a meeting that they could no longer receive this type of patients because cartel hit men have occasionally gone to hospitals to finish off a member of a rival drug mob who survived an attack.

Luis Carlos Esquivel, coordinator of Mexico’s State Health Services, told Efe that during Thursday’s meeting it was decided that three strategically located public hospitals will receive individuals wounded by gunfire.

But the proposal must first be presented to the heads of the so-called Joint Operation, which coordinates the roughly 8,000 soldiers and federal police who have been patrolling the city since the start of this year to combat the cartels.

More than 1,400 people have been killed this year in Juarez, a city across the border from El Paso, Texas that is being fought over by the powerful Carrillo Fuentes and Sinaloa drug mobs.

The three public hospitals that would treat the gunshot victims and therefore need increased army and police protection are Hospital General, Hospital Regional 66 and Clinic No. 35.

The meeting, held at Hospital Regional 66, operated by the Social Security Institute, was held amid a climate of escalating violence in which 300 people have been killed thus far in August.

Representatives of the Public Safety Secretariat of Chihuahua state – where Juarez is located – and of federal and local police forces were among those taking part in the meeting.

Ciudad Juarez is one of several hotspots in a raging drug war in Mexico.

Battles among numerous cartels over supply routes to the United States, as well as shootouts between the drug mobs and soldiers and police trying to crack down on their business, have left nearly 15,000 people dead since 2006.

So far this year, according to an unofficial tally published by the El Universal newspaper, more than 4,600 people have died.

Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police officers across Mexico in an attempt to crush the drug cartels, but the violence has continued unabated

[Stoat]

Poster from 1939

[Stoat]

Sad ping

[rawhide]

Well, if the victim and his buddies come in there with their guns, I’m sure nobody will telling them no, go away! I’m sure of that!

[KarinG1]

Ciudad Juarez, the scene of a bloody turf war

Astroturf if you ask me. Those people are downright un-American.

[vetvetdoug]

Texas has a lot of veterinarians that could do a respectable job treating these animals.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

100-ft high border made with reinforced concrete with sharpshooters at guard towers every mile. Time for Mexico to stew in their own juices.

[Brilliant]

They have free public healthcare anyway, so what does it matter if private clinics turn them down? Heh, heh.

[HiTech RedNeck]

What Would Teddy Roosevelt Do?

[Stoat]

100-ft high border made with reinforced concrete with sharpshooters at guard towers every mile. Time for Mexico to stew in their own juices.

You won't get any arguments from me.  In the last century, there were all sorts of 'public works' projects done on a massive scale, such as building dams and such.  When one compares the cost and benefits of those projects versus the benefits of what you suggest, it seems that a border fence would be a bargain.  The big difference is that in the case of the dams there weren't Leftist politicians standing in front of the construction workers yelling "Racism!" as they are for the border fence.

[Logophile]

Time for Mexico to stew in their own juices.

Unfortunately, Mexico's problems have a way of becoming our problems. That is especially true when those problems result from the demand for illegal drugs in the United States.

[Stoat]

They have free public healthcare anyway, so what does it matter if private clinics turn them down? Heh, heh.

Indeed :-)

I recall that at the height of the gang wars in south central L.A. and other places in the 1990's, there were also incidents where gangbangers would go into emergency rooms and try to finish off other gangbangers, but nothing on this scale of course and I don't remember hearing about any hospitals refusing treatment to gunshot victims. 

[Jeff Chandler]

Clinics in Violent Mexican City to Turn Away Gunshot Victims

Los Angeles?

[njslim]

Land mines every foot would be cheaper

If somewhat messier....

[Stoat]

What Would Teddy Roosevelt Do?

He probably didn't  have a bunch of shrill, sniveling, America-hating Leftists in Government who kept him continually hamstrung and prevented him from doing what needed to be done, so he probably would have massed troops at the border and built a massive fence.  Or, invaded Mexico. :-)

Theodore Roosevelt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Stoat]

If somewhat messier....

I think that's why God invented vultures :-)

[BenLurkin]

Why not charge them double and make them pay cash up front?

[AuntB]

El Paso has managed to stay fairly safe from the narco terror so far that goes on in Juarez...all those gunshot patients will be coming to El Paso hospitals with their thugs.

[Tainan]

Nice poster.

[SwinneySwitch]

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[dennisw]

I liked George Bush but he possessed a certain mad streak when it comes to Mexico. Who in their right mind would want to partner up with them? A North American Union with this loco-weed country??