Organized crime and cells affiliated with the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) cartels are employing an unprecedented strategy of attacks against doctors in Baja California Norte, which has gone unnoticed by state and federal authorities.
As happened in that state during the most brutal periods of the Arellano Félix Cartel’s reign during Felipe Calderón’s disastrous presidency, the diversification of criminal activities related to drug trafficking has cornered the population.
Faced with the internal war within the Sinaloa Cartel between the factions of Los Chapitos and Los Mayitos, coupled with their dispute with the CJNG for control of Tijuana, these organizations have once again resorted to extortion and kidnapping as a way to continue filling their coffers.
“Just as happened in 2008 and 2009, during Calderón’s presidency, when cartels extorted, kidnapped, and murdered business owners in the region, they are now doing the same with a new target, albeit not as wealthy: doctors,” a source familiar with the situation explained to this reporter.
In the last year and a half, and most recently this February, the Baja California State Attorney General’s Office has received a flood of complaints from doctors and their families that they are being extorted in extremely violent ways by members of criminal cells that operate throughout the state.
“Without state and municipal corruption, drug traffickers and their criminal cells cannot operate. The state prosecutor’s office does nothing and excuses itself by saying that these crimes, since they are related to drug trafficking, fall under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, and that’s how they pass the buck without doing anything,” says the source who has been following the problem.
The fight for control of Tijuana and other cities in the state between cells of the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG has negative economic consequences for both, who seek to compensate for the disruption of their drug shipments to the United States with extortion and kidnappings.
This past February, to cite a recent example, an incident was reported to the State Prosecutor’s Office in Tecate, where criminals violently broke into a doctor’s house, using explosives to ram the door. They entered and abducted a doctor, even assaulting several of his underage family members.
The case was reported to municipal and state authorities, who did absolutely nothing. The doctor, after being beaten, was released after paying the ransom demanded by his captors.
Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, Rosarito, Tecate, San Quintín, and San Felipe, among other places, have records of extortion, disappearances, kidnappings, and even murders of doctors.
The criminals go to hospitals, health centers, and private clinics to intimidate doctors.
Members of drug cartel cells identify themselves as such to collect protection money and a fee for each consultation or patient the doctors see.
Doctors who refuse to pay or fall behind on their dues are kidnapped, beaten, and murdered. They are also victims of extortion through the abduction of family members—children, spouses, siblings, and parents.
The source who revealed the situation notes that despite the serious situation facing doctors in Baja California Norte, which is documented with the authorities, the national media has not reported on it.
“They’ve focused on the violence plaguing Sinaloa as if it were the only state in the country suffering from it. The cartel war is having repercussions throughout the nation, especially in areas along the northern border where the population is bearing the brunt of it. It even seems like the issue of extortion is being divided up; a few weeks ago all the national media were talking about Michoacán, now they’re obsessed with Sinaloa, and the only ones who benefit from that are the corrupt authorities and the criminals. Society? Well, thanks a lot, to hell with it,” the source adds.
Source: heraldodemexico
