An armed commando executes a patient inside a hospital in Cuernavaca, Mexico

An armed commando on Tuesday entered Hospital Center, a private medical center in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and shot dead one of the patients. The first reports indicate that the attack took place inside the intensive care unit, where the victim had been admitted on Monday afternoon. “An armed attack inside the hospital is something unprecedented,” said the Morelos State prosecutor, Uriel Carmona, in an interview with Radio Formula. Army and Navy officers are guarding the center while investigations are carried out.

At around 5:30 in the morning a group of 10 armed individuals entered the hospital, which is located on Teopanzolco Avenue, in Vista Hermosa neighborhood, about three kilometers from the city center of Cuernavaca. The attack focused solely on one of the patients who, according to local reports, had been admitted to the medical center on Monday with gunshot wounds. Prosecutor Uriel Carmona indicated that images from surveillance cameras are being compiled to find out how the attack was carried out. The Forensic Medical Service has already transferred the body of the victim, whose identity is currently unknown.

This attack adds to the spiral of violence that the State of Morelos has experienced in recent days with the murder of a well-known journalist and the kidnapping of a bishop. Salvador Rangel, the bishop emeritus of Chilpancingo (Guerrero), was located yesterday at Doctor José G. Parres General Hospital, in Cuernavaca, after being missing for three days. Carmona noted that Rangel, known for his role as a mediator between criminal groups in Guerrero, had been the victim “of an express kidnapping” to steal money from him.

On Monday, Carmona acknowledged in a press conference that the murder of the communicator Roberto Figueroa Bustos had to do with his activity as a journalist. Figueroa was the host of the program Acá en el show and had a video column that was very critical of the administration of the governor of Morelos, Cuauhtémoc Blanco. The prosecutor pointed out that there are “strong elements” that the crime is tied to his work.

Figueroa Bustos was kidnapped on the morning of April 26, after dropping his children off at school. His wife received several calls demanding financial payment for his release. The woman carried out the payment, but that same day Figueroa’s body appeared inside her vehicle in the town of Coajomulco, in Huitzilac, on the Mexico-Cuernavaca federal highway. The Government of Morelos regretted the murder of the journalist and asked the State Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the crime.

Mexico is one of the most lethal countries in the world for the press, where during the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador at least 43 journalists have been murdered for doing their job, according to the freedom of expression organization Article 19.

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