Mexico Under Siege

CARTEL RIVALRY BLAMED IN LATEST MEXICO DRUG CLINIC SLAYINGS

Two Doctors and Eight Clients Are Shot to Death at a Rehab Facility
in Ciudad Juarez.

In the second mass slaying at a Mexican rehab clinic in less than two
weeks, gunmen burst into the Life Annex addiction treatment center in
the volatile border city of Ciudad Juarez and killed at least 10
people -- patients and therapists alike.

The gunmen escaped, and authorities on Wednesday blamed the Tuesday
night shooting on a "war of extermination" among drug traffickers.
Rehabilitation clinics are often targeted as Mexican drug gangs hunt
rivals or attempt to settle old scores.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Wednesday that the
violence marked the latest outbreak of a war between rival cartels --
the locally based Carrillo Fuentes gang and its enemies from the
state of Sinaloa -- attempting to gain control of the city's
flourishing drug market.

This was the sixth drug treatment center attacked in Ciudad Juarez in
the last 13 months. The deadliest assault occurred Sept. 2, when 18
people were lined up against a clinic wall and cut down by automatic
weapon fire.

In the wake of Tuesday's slayings, security officials ordered 10
Ciudad Juarez drug treatment centers closed, citing irregularities in
their permits and a lack of security measures. Officials have said
that some clinics are really just fronts for drug dealers.

"This is to prevent occurrence of another such act," said Victor
Valencia, chief of security for Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez
is located.

The attack in a working-class neighborhood left dead director Dr.
Iram Ortiz; a female patient he was counseling; another doctor and
seven male clients, said Enrique Torres, a spokesman for government
security forces. At least two other people were seriously wounded, he
said in a telephone interview.

A survivor who watched the massacre while hiding inside the clinic
told reporters that as many as eight gunmen burst through the front
door and fired indiscriminately.

The shooting started around 10:15 p.m., after some residents of the
facility had attended a prayer session and gone to bed. Neighbors
said they had at first confused the gunfire with fireworks exploding
in the city's main square as part of festivities marking the 199th
anniversary of Mexico's independence from Spain, which started late
Tuesday and continued through Wednesday.

Frantic, sobbing relatives gathered outside the facility early
Wednesday, pleading for information and bemoaning the loss of their kin.

Despite a heavy military presence, Ciudad Juarez, sitting just across
the border from El Paso, is Mexico's most violent city in a raging
drug war that has claimed more than 13,000 lives since President
Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against powerful cartels in
December 2006.

Scores of treatment centers for people with drug and alcohol problems
have sprung up in numerous Mexican cities, reflecting this country's
fast-growing addiction problem. Once just a pathway for drugs headed
to the U.S., Mexico has become a consumer nation; the government says
the number of addicts here increased 51% from 2002 to 2008.

But far from sanctuaries, many of the treatment centers have become
part of the violent world spawned by drug trafficking. Many of the
clients come from the gangs fighting to control the drug market, and
the battle in the streets carries over into the clinics. Often the
centers are used as a fertile recruiting ground by traffickers.

And some of the facilities, as officials noted Wednesday, are
fly-by-night fronts with little connection to serious rehabilitation.
Valencia, the security official, ordered a citywide inspection of the centers.

"This is a war of extermination among criminal groups," state
prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez said at a news conference.

Elsewhere in Ciudad Juarez, five people were killed early Wednesday
when gunmen attacked the Coco Bongo nightclub as customers were deep
in Independence Day celebrations. It was the 23rd nightclub in the
city this year in which patrons have been killed, according to
tallies by local newspapers.

On Tuesday afternoon, five other people -- including two U.S.
citizens from El Paso -- were shot to death at a carwash in Ciudad Juarez.

And in Tijuana, the bodies of six people were found stuffed in a car
and badly burned.