Drug traffickers take control of health centers in some areas of Mexico

NBC News

22-07-2025

Despite all his years of experience and technical training, the doctor's voice trembled when he recalled how organized crime groups have taken control of emergency rooms and medical facilities in some parts of Mexico.
'They force us to come in through threatening phone calls, in the early hours of the morning, and they tell us: 'We're just a few meters from where you live, and you're with your family. If you don't treat this person, we're going to pick you up right here,'' said the doctor, who works at a health center in Guanajuato, in central Mexico, and who requested complete anonymity for fear of reprisal.
In many regions of Mexico, organized crime attacks have affected hospitals, even taking over operating rooms and emergency rooms, where hitmen kidnap medical personnel to force them to treat the wounded in the frequent clashes they wage with other cartels.
The doctor interviewed by Noticias Telemundo in Guanajuato claimed that, on one occasion, he was contacted in the early hours by a high-ranking local drug operative, who made an unusual request.
'I received a call requesting treatment for a person who had been shot by a firearm. And they arrived at the main entrances of the hospitals with long guns, demanding treatment for their patient,' the doctor said. On several occasions, the doctor said, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel forced him to use his equipment to treat hitmen.
Noticias Telemundo confirmed that both the local boss and the hitman whose life was saved later died in a confrontation with the Mexican army. For the safety of the doctor interviewed in Guanajuato, their names are being withheld.
According to the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board, cartels and criminal groups continue to contribute to the high levels of violence in Mexico.
'Organized crime continues to be a key player in the lives of Mexicans. This is evident because some criminal groups have managed to force the Mexican state to lose control of certain territories, and because of the corruption and impunity that allow them to continue to reign and expand their capabilities,' said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, co-director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University, in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.
So far, official data shows that from September 2024 to April 2025, there was a 32.9% decrease in the daily average of intentional homicide victims, falling from 86.9 victims per day to 58.3.
However, disappearances increased significantly: In the first 100 days of Claudia Sheinbaum's administration, 4,010 disappearances were recorded, an average of 40 per day, compared with the figure of 25 recorded during the previous six-year term.
'There are many missing people who, in reality, have already been kidnapped by drug traffickers and buried in so-called narco-graves,' said David Saucedo, a security analyst based in Mexico City. 'The cartels are hiding the bodies, and that's why we're seeing a reduction in homicides in several states across the country. But it's not that there are fewer deaths; there are fewer bodies. They're hiding the bodies,' Saucedo asserted.
'This shouldn't be normal'
According to the latest report from the Mexican government, Guanajuato is the state with the highest number of homicides (980 between January and April 2025). In February 2025, the daily average reached 12.5. Last year, the National Survey of Victimization and Perception of Public Safety revealed that 87.5% of the population considered public safety to be the state's most serious problem.
'In Guanajuato, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel is fighting over drug trafficking with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and that's generating a lot of violence,' Correa-Cabrera explained. 'These organized crime groups are fighting for control of spaces because they need more street space, there are more feuds, and that's leading to more injuries and deaths, so they're taking control of medical centers.'
Noticias Telemundo visited Guanajuato to document the case of a health center in the city of Celaya, where wounded drug traffickers were treated. According to a state intelligence report, until three years ago, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel used the San Fermín Clinic to treat its wounded hitmen. However, in November 2022, gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel killed two men there and set fire to the now-abandoned facility.
'The hospital where I work in Guanajuato isn't the only one that's suffered this, nor am I the only doctor who's experienced this. We see in the news that these people are arriving at certain public hospitals,' the Guanajuato doctor said, adding that 'I can say that more colleagues have experienced this. One lives with anxiety, and this shouldn't be normal for us.'
Due to the strong presence of criminal groups, the Guanajuato state police have implemented operations in clinics and hospitals in several municipalities of the state, to prevent drug cartels from continuing to infiltrate those places.
'When people injured with a firearm arrive, the prosecutor's office sends us a custody request. When these people arrive, we coordinate to provide security at the hospitals,' said Bernardo Cajero, director of the Celaya police and in charge of these security operations.
However, the Guanajuato doctor explained that although the Silver Code has been established in Mexico — a protocol that requires authorities to be notified when there are episodes of violence or when a person with a gunshot wound arrives at a health center — this is not always followed.
'They come and take our cellphones, cut us off from communication, and start threatening us, saying that if they see anything strange, they could hurt us themselves,' the doctor said, with fear in his voice. 'One of the things they're asking is that we not activate Code Silver and that we not notify the authorities.'
'It affects us all'
Although there are no official figures on armed takeovers of health centers, the Guanajuato case is not unique in Mexico. In April 2024, a 10-person armed group entered a private medical center in Cuernavaca and shot and killed a patient in intensive care. In September, gunmen threatened staff at the Mexican Social Security Institute in Mazatlán with the phrase 'If they die, you die,' forcing them to care for their wounded. Two months later, two attacks were reported at the Culiacán General Hospital.
'What the drug cartels do is take over hospitals, kidnap nurses, doctors, specialists, blood banks, operating rooms, and whatever else they need. They are hospital centers where the wounded are seen and treated, so they can return to their criminal activities,' Saucedo said.
In 2022, a report by Insecurity Insight for the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition — a group of nongovernmental organizations focused on protecting health care — warned that Mexico had documented the highest number of violent incidents against health care workers in Latin America: at that time, 14 recorded incidents, including three deaths, five kidnappings, two destroyed or damaged medical facilities and a damaged or looted medical unit.
'Before, they would leave their wounded in clinics, but then they would be finished off by rival groups,' Saucedo said, 'now, for added security, many drug trafficking groups are setting up private hospitals for themselves.'
Saucedo and other experts cited as examples of this trend the complaints about the hospital built by the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as 'El Mencho,' and the mobile clinic set up by the Sinaloa Cartel's Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada.
Researchers like Correa-Cabrera warn that these incidents also occur in other countries experiencing major security crises, such as Haiti, Ecuador and the Argentine city of Rosario, or in contexts of conventional warfare, such as the conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, Somalia and Libya, among others.
'This isn't something new; this is part of any armed conflict, low-intensity conflict, or war,' Correa-Cabrera said, 'because health care for members of these warring groups is very important.'
Meanwhile, the Guanajuato doctor says the tension generated by these incidents, in which armed groups enter hospitals, is sometimes so great that medical staff request vacation time and psychological support.
'The first thing is to save that person's life, regardless of the situation or the accusations, because they are human beings,' the doctor said, 'but it affects us all; it can cause trauma. In fact, there were colleagues who asked for their leave, and anyone would do that. It's normal when you live with that every day.'