Politics

Ciudad Juarez –  Hundreds of doctors and other health-care workers here in Mexico's murder capital went on a 24-hour strike Monday to demand more security in light of the murders of three colleagues and the kidnappings of 11 others this year.

Just two of the more than 20 main clinics and hospitals in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, will remain open to deal with emergencies, with doctors deciding what qualifies as an emergency.

The past two weeks have been "distressing" because three doctors were kidnapped and one of them was found dead last week, Medical Safety Group member Dr. Arturo Valenzuela Zorrilla told Efe.

"There is always the fear that our relatives are not going to see us again," the physician said.

The release of two doctors kidnapped last week was confirmed on Sunday night, police said, adding that ransom was paid in both cases.

The Juarez medical strike, which started Monday at 7:30 a.m., could be extended to 48 hours and expanded to the entire state of Chihuahua if the state government does not respond to the demands being made.

The doctors expect immediate results from officials due to the violence and crime affecting their profession, a document sent to the government says.

The document gives officials seven days to clear up the three murders of doctors committed this year and demands that 200 Federal Police officers be assigned to investigate extortion cases and threats against medical professionals over the past three years.

The decision to stage a general strike was made after the kidnapping and murder of Dr. Jose Alberto Betancourt Rosales, Valenzuela said.

The 57-year-old Betancourt was abducted Dec. 2 from the parking lot of the medical center where he worked and his body was found on Saturday in a street in the southern section of the border city.

Ciudad Juarez is considered the most violent city in Mexico, with more than 2,900 murders, or an average of nearly eight per day, committed this year.

The violence in the border city is blamed on the war for control of smuggling routes into the United States being waged by the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels.