2 paramedics murdered in Mexico while transporting patient [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Associated Press
July 1, 2021 at 8:46 p.m. CDT

MEXICO CITY — Two paramedics were murdered while transporting a patient in the violence-plagued northern Mexico state of Zacatecas, authorities said Thursday.

The paramedics were from the neighboring state of Jalisco and were assigned to transport a patient for treatment to a hospital in Zacatecas when they were killed Wednesday night. There was no immediate information on whether the patient was harmed.

Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro said he “deeply condemned and lamented the killings” of the government health workers. Zacatecas has been the scene of bloody turf battles between a number of gangs, including the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.

Attacks on ambulances in Mexico have sometimes occurred when cartel gunmen want to kill a patient, but paramedics are usually not targeted.

. . .

The killings came amid a series of massacres and drug cartel battles this month that resembled scenes from the darkest days of Mexico’s 2006-2012 drug war, when Zacatecas was dominated by the old Zetas cartel.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2-paramedics-murdered-in-mexico-while-transporting-patient/2021/07/01/5375f2b8-dad7-11eb-8c87-ad6f27918c78_story.html