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This article was distributed by: Frontera NorteSur they can accessed online at http://frontera.nmsu.edu In the first five months of 2001, the Red Cross, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Social Security Institute, IMSS) and the Hospital General in Ciudad Juárez have given medical attention to 11,636 people for injuries they have received due to violence. This is an average of approximately 86 people per day. The Red Cross says that since the beginning of 2001 its paramedics have come to the rescue of 676 people injured by firearms, knives and other sorts of physical violence. Of these 676 people, 135 died from their injuries. Over that same time period the IMSS, the Mexican hospital and insurance system, treated 9,900 patients that were hospitalized due to injuries sustained by violent acts. The Hospital General treated 1,060 injured people due to acts of violence. Armando Jiménez Gutiérrez, an epidemiologist at the Hospital General, said that in the 240 cases of violence that he studied only 30 were related to domestic situations while the other 210 injuries occurred outside the home. The majority of the cases came in on Friday and Saturday nights beginning at dark and continuing into the early hours of the morning, Jiménez stated. He also found that the principal cause of violence is alcohol. Source: El Diario, May
16, 2001.
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