| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2008 
Red Cross Gets Radio Threats in Mexico Border City
 Marina Montemayor - Associated Press
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Ciudad Juarez – Red Cross workers stopped treating gunshot victims for several hours in a violent city across the border from Texas after receiving death threats over their radio frequencies, officials said Wednesday.
Two voices were heard over Red Cross radios Tuesday night threatening to kill emergency workers who cared for gunshot victims in Ciudad Juarez, local Red Cross chief Jorge Diaz said.
The Red Cross ordered its personnel to stop treating shooting victims while it decided on additional security measures, Diaz said. City government spokesman Jaime Torres said service resumed Wednesday afternoon, after police were sent to accompany ambulances.
The first voice used a vulgar expression to threaten emergency workers and the second warned that Red Cross personnel “will fall one by one.” The identities and motives of the speakers were unknown.
Two months ago, the Red Cross was forced to restrict service in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million that is home to the powerful Juarez drug cartel. The local Red Cross hospital stopped providing 24-hour emergency service after gunmen killed four people then being treated for gunshot wounds. Emergency service there now ends at 10 p.m.
Police protection for ambulances further strains a city police force that is already under siege. Many officers in Ciudad Juarez have been killed – some after their names appeared on hit lists left in public.
Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz announced a plan Wednesday to recruit soldiers with at least three years of army experience to serve on the city's depleted police force. Under an agreement with the Defense Department, the city will try to draw soldiers with higher salaries and more benefits than they now receive.
Thousands of army troops are already battling drug gangs in hotspots across Mexico under a campaign started by President Felipe Calderón. But relentless bloodshed has prompted opposition leaders to question the effectiveness of the government's fight.
More than 780 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez this year, making it one of the worst-hit cities in a national wave of violence. Most of the killings have been drug-related.
On Monday, Mexican motocross champion Rene Tercero Reyes was killed along with a friend and brother-in-law when gunmen stormed a home in Ciudad Juarez, said Alejandro Pariente, spokesman for the regional deputy attorney general's office. The motive for the attack was unknown.
Tercero Reyes, a five-time national champion, lived in the city of Chihuahua but had traveled to Ciudad Juarez for a weekend competition. More than 200 people on motorbikes protested his death Tuesday. |
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