Mexico drug war's costs and risks are being exported to U.S

Gunshot victims of drug violence in Mexico are being treated in the United States at  tax payers' expense, according to this report from the L.A. Times' Miguel Bustillo.

Using the wounding of deputy police chief Lorenzo de la Torre Torres as an example, Bustillo writes:

"The only hospital within a 280-mile radius to offer state-of-the-art trauma care, Thomason has become an unwilling treatment center of choice for law enforcement officials and others in the vicinity wounded in Mexico's drug turf battles. The violence has killed more than 2,000 people this year, and more than double that number in the 20 months since President Felipe Calderon began deploying 40,000 troops across the country to crack down on narcotics trafficking."

Meanwhile,  in Mexico City, Ken Ellingwood reports that anti-crime activists in Mexico say they have audio proof that the former attorney general of coastal Tabasco state was in league with drug traffickers while in office.

For more on our Mexico Under Siege series, click here.

Click here for more on the drug trade and here for Mexico.

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Comments

[joe]

this is a sad sad story about whats going on in mexico but i definitely think american hospitals and some of our tax money should go into helping those in mexico who are being hurt by the drug wars. the drug wars in mexico are partially the U.S's fault. we are the customers for the drugs these powerful drug lords are selling we are partially to blame for the over 2000 people killed in mexico's drug wars. the disturbing truth is if there was no USA mexico wouldnt be dealing with these drug lords.