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Drug treatment center targeted in Mexico, 18 dead

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-04 10:41

Jaime Valle was at a loss as to why his 17-year-old son, Jaime Saul Perez, was gunned down just as he was trying to turn his life around by seeking help for marijuana abuse.

He said his son had never been in trouble, except for smoking pot, and had been expected to finish his treatment and return home this weekend.

"I want justice!" Valle yelled. "Kill those ungrateful dogs that are going around killing innocent people. Justice! I want justice!"

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's deadliest city, has seen the worst of the nation's drug violence with more than 1,300 deaths this year. The bloodshed has continued despite a buildup in troops since March.

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Surging gang violence has claimed 13,500 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and deployed soldiers across the country to fight cartels, but Garcia said the government has no intention of backing down. He said the bloodshed is peaking because the government is taking on drug gangs like never before, and that the crackdown is the only way Mexico will would eventually find lasting security.

"The permanent offensive against crime - that is not going to stop," he said.

The Ciudad Juarez is home to the Juarez cartel, which has been fighting other drug gangs for lucrative drug routes into the United States.

In June, five men were killed in an attack at another rehabilitation center, while 50 patients scrambled over a back fence to escape. In August 2008, gunmen barged into a pastor's sermon at a rehabilitation center and opened fire, killing eight people. Authorities have yet to say whether the attacks are related.

Hector Parra, director of the Center for Liberation from Addiction in west Ciudad Juarez, said six families pulled their relatives out of his institution Thursday for fears it might be targeted. But he insisted his center is safe because it does not admit members of major drug gangs and screens prospective patients for telltale tattoos.

The site of Wednesday's attack, Aliviane, is not affiliated with the similarly named US nonprofit Alivane Inc., which has 13 clinics in Texas.

A spokesman for the US organization said it was contacted several years ago by people in Ciudad Juarez who wanted to use its operation as a model for a similar program, and that Alivane Inc. contributed beds, fans and other materials to help it get started.

The spokesman asked that he not be identified because of concerns about his own safety, adding that his organization was "very sorry for the unfortunate incident" which took place just a few miles from its own headquarters in El Paso.

He said security was being strengthened at the US rehabilitation clinics.

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