NINE PEOPLE were killed and another nine wounded when gunmen opened fire on a drug rehabilitation centre in northern Mexico this weekend.
In the latest of a string of attacks on rehab clinics, the attackers entered the clinic in Gomez Palacio on Saturday afternoon and started firing at random. There were about 50 patients inside the building.
Attacks on rehabilitation centres began in 2008, with the murder of eight patients attending a prayer meeting in the border city of Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua. They intensified in September last year when gunmen killed 27 people in two assaults in Juarez. In the bloodiest of all, several carloads of gunmen killed 19 people inside a clinic in Chihuahua city 10 days ago.
It is not clear why recovering addicts have become the habitual targets of the organised crime groups battling to dominate Mexico’s drug trade.
The initial massacres were understood as an attempt to deter other addicts from kicking the habit. In the Chihuahua massacre earlier this month, the killers left behind a message describing their victims as “pigs and rats”.
Other people at risk of being targeted include musicians who play narcocorridos, ballads based on the exploits of traffickers. The latest was singer Sergio Vega, known as El Shaka, who died when his car was attacked near a motorway toll booth on Saturday evening. – ( Guardianservice)