MATAMOROS, Tamaulipas — Trauma doctors and public health officials in Mexican border cities called for increased security protocols in the wake of the region’s continuing cartel gun battles. The doctors claim additional security is necessary, particularly when wounded cartel gunmen and police end up at the same hospital.
Tamaulipas Secretary of Health Gloria Molina Gamboa said, in an interview with Breitbart Texas, that state hospitals require additional security strategies from the Mexican Military and the Tamaulipas State Police when doctors are caring for people injured in violent confrontations.
As Breitbart Texas has reported, the border cities of Tamaulipas have had a series of constant violent clashes between organized crime gunmen and police forces. The gun battles continue leaving a steady flow of wounded individuals including innocent bystanders, gunmen, military forces, and police officers.
The city of Matamoros is located directly south of Brownsville, Texas, making the area an important human smuggling and drug smuggling corridor for the Gulf Cartel.
When a shootout takes place medical institutions have a duty to care for everyone, Molina Gamboa explained. The ongoing violence can lead to situations where alleged gunmen need medical care. Similarly, police forces may also require medical attention. and sometimes both sides would need treatment at the same place. Because of the volatility of the situation, hospital staff members are calling for police officers to be stationed outside of clinics.
Doctors are also calling for stricter access controls for visitors of shooting victims. Family members will have to prove their ties to the victim.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “J.A. Espinoza” from Tamaulipas.