NINE PEOPLE were killed and another nine wounded when gunmen opened fire on a drug rehabilitation centre in northern Mexico over the weekend.
In the latest of a string of attacks on rehab clinics, the attackers entered the Strength for Life centre in the city of Gomez Palacio on Saturday afternoon and started firing at random. There were about 50 patients inside the building at the time, but many escaped after the sound of the first shots. The manager was among the dead.
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 separate assaults, also in Juarez.
In the bloodiest of all, several carloads of hooded 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 organised crime groups battling to dominate Mexico’s drug trade.
The initial massacres were understood to be an attempt to deter other addicts from kicking the habit. More recently the authorities have said that in some areas, street-gang members associated with the cartels use the centres as temporary hideouts when they need to lie low.
The massacres could be the result of rivals finding out where they are.
The most recent shooting was reportedly indiscriminate, but in other cases the hitmen have separated out their targets and let others go unharmed.
In the Chihuahua massacre earlier this month the killers left behind a message describing their victims as “pigs and rats”. A third theory gives rehabilitation centres a prominent role in forced recruitment strategies employed by the cartels, which need to constantly replace low-level operatives killed in battles with rivals. The massacres could be intended to send the message that it is better to be firing the guns than be fired at.
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 while he was on his way to play a concert.
Mr Vega had given an interview hours before, touching on the inherent danger of his profession. “I navigate through heavy themes [in my songs],” he said. “It can be a bit frightening but you have to put your faith in God.”