Oh, Doctor

A Tijuana hospital was strafed with high-powered weapons on December 31, and a used-car lot next door was set ablaze. Both the hospital and car lot are owned by Dr. Fernando Guzmán Cordero, who was kidnapped last year. (Guzmán was released, ostensibly for a ransom that was paid.)

The violence began shortly after midnight Wednesday. Initially, the car lot was set upon by a “commando-type” attack team of at least ten men who hurled incendiary devices into parked automobiles, destroying ten of them. Afterward, the adjacent hospital was strafed with assault rifles, shattering windows and damaging the façade. Nearly 100 shell casings were found in front of the hospital.

A piece of paper with a “narcomensaje” was left behind, indicating displeasure with the doctor’s treatment initiatives. The doctor speculates that his clinic and the car lot were targeted because he had treated four men with gunshot wounds on Monday, December 28. The doctor said two of the men were DOA. He also stressed in his statement that he does not discriminate in offering medical services to those who seek it and will continue to keep the clinic open in order to continue serving the community.

State prosecutor Fermín Gómez Gómez pointed out that the doctor had been kidnapped last year after his clinic became notorious as the site of a confrontation between supposed rival gangs seeking medical treatment; the incident left three men dead.

Prosecutor Gómez is quoted as saying, ”Today we see again the involvement of Dr. Guzmán, and naturally this is a motive for an investigation….” and “We are admitting that there is something irregular here that has to do with organized crime.…”

Source: Frontera, El Mexicano, El Sol de Tijuana