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Gang of Gunmen Kill 19 in Attack on Mexico Rehab Center
 Agence France-Presse
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June 11, 2010
| | Chihuahua state is the scene of a bloody struggle between drug cartels fighting for control of the lucrative trade in cocaine, mainly to the United States. | |
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - A group of more than 30 gunmen stormed a drug rehabilitation center in northern Mexico and opened fire, killing 19 people and wounding four others, police said Friday.
The rampage, the latest in a wave of violence linked to the narcotics trade, took place in the northern city of Chihuahua near midnight Thursday, when the gunmen arrived aboard six trucks, according to a federal police official.
Climbing to the second floor of the Templo Cristiano Fe y Vida (Christian Faith and Life Temple), they fired large-caliber weapons at patients and employees, killing 14. They fatally shot another five persons and left a threatening message before fleeing.
"At this time there are 19 deaths confirmed," the official told AFP.
The raid lasted little more than 10 minutes, according to residents living next to the center.
Shortly afterwards, police and soldiers surrounded the area searching in vain for the perpetrators, and ambulances ferried the wounded, including four reportedly in serious condition, to local hospitals.
Chihuahua state is the scene of a bloody struggle between drug cartels fighting for control of the lucrative trade in cocaine, mainly to the United States.
Authorities say rehab centers are often targeted by the cartels because they are used by individuals selling small quantities of drugs and as a refuge from violence or rival gangs.
In September 2009 there were two similar attacks that left a total of 28 dead in two drug rehabilitation centers in Ciudad Juarez.
Police said the rehab center targeted overnight may have housed members of the "Los Mexicles" gang linked to the Sinaloa cartel, which is warring with "Los Aztecos," affiliated with the Juarez cartel.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned the violence and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
"These are outrageous acts that reinforce the conviction of the need to use all out forces to fight criminal groups engaged in such acts of barbarism," Calderon said in a statement from Johannesburg, where he was attending the start of the World Cup.
Some 23,000 people have died in surging drug-related violence following the launch of a military clampdown on organized crime, involving some 50,000 troops, at the end of 2006.
Earlier this week, eight suspected members of the Beltran Leyva drug gang, among them two Colombian nationals, were killed in a clash with Mexican soldiers.
A human rights group said this week that Mexico's brutal drug war has killed some 913 children since December 2006, and that Calderon's strategy against the cartels has failed.
The conservative president has staked his term in office on tackling the drug cartels, deploying soldiers to the worst-affected parts of the country to do the job of often-corrupt police.
The profitable trade in illegal drugs has allowed cartels to arm themselves with the latest and most deadly weapons available.
Those weapons often come from the United States, and Calderon last month urged US lawmakers to strengthen gun laws, warning that over 90 percent of the guns used by drug traffickers in Mexico come from north of the border.
"Believe me, many of these guns are not going to honest American hands. Instead thousands are ending up in the hands of criminals," he said.
Calderon has scored some victories, including the arrest of top cartel leader Jose Antonio Medina, dubbed the "King of Heroin" and the death of Arturo Beltran Leyva, known as the "chief of chiefs."
But he also faces growing resentment from residents in the worst-affected parts of Mexico, who are angry at his failure to stop the violence and accuse the troops he has deployed of committing abuses.
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