Drug violence continues in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez
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Drug and gang-related violence continued in Mexico this week. In the northern border town of Juarez, gunmen broke into a drug rehabilitation center on Wednesday night.
They shot and killed eight patients and injured six others, the BBC reports this morning.
The hooded gunmen, all wearing body armor, burst into the drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation center, dragged the patients to the patio and shot them. About 40 people have been killed in drug cartel-related violence in the city this week.
In July, Tracy Wilkinson reported from Juarez on how drug-related killings have taken thousands of lives.
Ciudad Juarez has become a singular symbol of Mexico’s drug war, a concentration of everything that can go wrong. About 3,000 troops of the Mexican army arrived here after President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out offensive against drug traffickers, yet the killings have soared.
Click here to read more about Wednesday night’s attack in Juarez.
For more on the drug trade, click here.
For our dedicated page on Mexico Under Siege, see here.
For posts on Mexico, click here.
Read about the Merida Initiative -- through which the U.S. government will give Mexican President Felipe Calderon US$400 million in funding to help him in his war against the country’s drug cartels and organized crime networks.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City