Frontera NorteSur September 2000

A crackdown on pharmacies in Ciudad Juárez is upsetting pharmacy owners and the Chamber of
Commerce (Canaco) and is also seen to be targeting law-abiding businesses but ignoring those
pharmacies that allegedly make illegal sales. The investigations, perhaps begun in part due to El
Norte's undercover investigation of pharmacies that sell regulated drugs without prescriptions, are
said to be intense revisions of every prescription that a pharmacy has filled in the last five years.
Canaco pharmacy-area specialist Cruz María Arreola Enríquez complained that the Health Service
(Servicio de Salud) inspections are like a form of terrorism in their severity.

"They are wasting their time inspecting good pharmacies while those that obviously sell illegal drugs
and illegally sell controlled drugs are ignored," she said. Arreola went on to say that most pharmacy
owners like herself struggle to make a living in the business while owners that break the law for profit
are becoming rich overnight and display their great wealth by driving the latest, most expensive cars.

Over the weekend a large drug arrest was made outside the Plaza Farmacia by Grupo Orion
officers. Inside a car owned by an employee of the Plaza Farmacia, police discovered 68,440
regulated medicinal pills, eight kilos of marijuana and 28 street-sized doses of cocaine. The owner of
the pharmacy denies having anything to do with the drugs and said he had no idea that his night
watchman was allegedly involved in such things. The watchman said that he was only waiting on the
street according to his boss's instructions and had no idea what the boxes in his car contained.
Nearly 60,500 Valium pills were seized along with 590 pills of Neo-Pecordan, 3,900 Rohypnol pills,
630 Tafil pills, 400 Darvon pills and 520 OxyContin pills.

Source: El Norte, August 21, 2000. Article by Juan de Dios Oliva.

Pharmacies Sell Controlled Drugs without Prescriptions

An El Norte undercover investigation of pharmacies in Ciudad Juárez indicates that many drugs
supposedly available only with prescription in Mexico are readily obtainable without a prescription
and at a much lower price than the drug would cost legally, or on the street, in the US. Valium which
sells at Walgreens for US$19.50 in the US for 10 pills, 10 mg each, costs only US$10 in Mexico
without a prescription. Qxicotin, a synthetic morphine, which would cost on the street nearly US$20
a pill in the US is available in law-breaking Cd. Juárez pharmacies without a prescription for US$10
a pill. Perhaps the most frightening part of the story is that US buyers only have to walk across a
bridge from El Paso into Cd. Juárez and ask a taxi driver to take them to a pharmacy where
"prohibited medicines" are sold. The driver then gets a cut of the sale for having provided the
pharmacy with a customer.

The El Norte article also followed a married couple from Alamogordo, New Mexico around Cd.
Juárez as they sought out Qxicotin over a period of a week. During their first visit to the city the
couple easily found a taxi driver to show them a pharmacy that would sell them the synthetic
morphine. Their second time back the first pharmacy they went to would not sell them Qxicoticn
without a prescription but told them a place to go. Upon arriving at the second pharmacy someone
met them at the door and took them upstairs to a doctor who wrote out the desired prescription.
More Qxicotin was then obtained from this store.

Cd. Juárez does have a control system in place but apparently it is not always adhered to by the drug
stores. Whenever "dangerous" medicines are sold the prescriptions for them are to be kept by the
pharmacy and then sent to the Health Department. Also, controlled medicines are not to be
displayed within view by the public but this violation did occur in many of the stores that El Norte
visited. The display of such drugs may symbolize the fact that a particular pharmacy illegally trafficks
in prescription medication. Cd. Juárez health officials commenting on the story all agreed that the
illegal sale of potentially dangerous drugs is a serious health problem but that the city does not have
the resources to enforce its existing laws.

Source: El Norte article by Guadalupe Salcido, August 14, 2000.

Public Transportation Becoming Safer in Ciudad Juárez

Public bus safety has been an important topic in Cd. Juárez since July, 2000 when a number of
people were killed in a flood-related bus accident. In response to these deaths the city has mandated
the drug testing of all public bus drivers and has required that all bus lines carry insurance to cover
their passengers in case of accident.

In regard to the insurance requirement bus lines complained that insurance companies would not sell
them the insurance they desired. This was confirmed by the State Department of Public
Transportation when it called all of the city's insurers and invited them to a meeting about the
coverage of city bus passengers. Only five of the city's companies attended the meeting and only four
stated that they would cover public transportation passengers. This happened despite the fact that
state officials explained to insurers that public busses had less accidents than specially contracted
busses that take workers to and from maquiladoras. The specially contracted busses currently have
insurance.

However, now that the public bus lines have insurers that they can work with the state expects that
travelers will soon be covered with insurance in case of accident. The policy will be for 350,000
pesos (approximately US$38,450) per event.

Already in action, the city's drug-testing program began on August 4, 2000 and has resulted in the
suspension of three drivers. Two bus drivers lost their licenses for failing drug tests. Chemical
evidence of cocaine use was found in the drivers' urine. Another man had his license suspended when
he failed to give a sample to a technician. However, he later completed the test and will have his
license returned if the results are satisfactory.

The surprise sampling program has been criticized in that drivers must give a urine sample while
standing in the back of the bus, often with customers seated nearby. Tests are supposed to be done
on a weekly basis but the lab cannot keep up with the city's testing demands according to state
officials. Testing is to resume shortly however.

Source: El Diario, August 18, 2000. Insurance article by Jesús Avila Ventura.

Health and Environmental News from Matamoros and Ciudad Juárez

The general secretary of the Regional Federation of Workers in Matamoros (FRTM), Alfredo Bazán
Serrata stated that workers were suffering repetitive motion injuries and were being made ill by
working with toxic substances in the Autotrim SA de CV plant in Matamoros. This situation was
detected two years ago by the Maquila Industry Workers Union (Sindicato de Jornaleros y Obreros
Industriales de la Industria Maquiladora) and almost all of the cases have been resolved. The
repetitive motion injuries were caused by workers putting covers on automobile steering wheels. The
workers suffered damage to their wrists, necks and shoulders. Workers have also been sickened by
exposure to toxic materials at the plant. Bazán said that not all of the company's workers were
injured and that there are only 35 cases of injured workers left to resolve. These cases were made
after an investigation by the health department. It should also be noted that while Mexico has many
very good worker safety laws on its books, similar to those of the USA, the laws are often not
enforced.

Source: El Mañana, August 2000. Article by Efraín Martínez.

In another story from Matamoros, the newspaper El Mañana writes about the clean up of a toxic
spill by Cleanmex, a Mexican company that they describe as the only company in the country able to
handle toxic waste. Found in a colonia (neighborhood) near the city dump, the spill is being attributed
to the company Grupo Bioquímico of Saltillo, Coahuila. Six small tanks or containers carrying
undescribed toxic waste or wastes from the company were spilled in Colonia El Alto. Grupo
Bioquímico Saltillo contracted with Cleanmex to clean up the contaminated soil and dispose of the
containers at a toxic-waste site. According to Sonia Chacón, director of environment for the city
(Control Ambiental), the damage caused by the company's lack of responsibility was minor as only
one square meter of soil was contaminated. The Federal Attorney General's Environment Office
(Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente) will determine the fine in the case. The attorney
general is also investigating clandestine dumping by unauthorized companies or persons.

Source: El Mañana, August 2000. Article by Juan Pablo Sánchez.

There are nearly 350 illegal garbage dumps in Cd. Juárez where industrial and medical waste are
disposed of improperly. Margarita Rodríguez González, the coordinator of inspectors for the City
Services Department (Dirección de Servicios Urbanos), says that many illegal dumps are larger than
200 square meters and that there exist within the city at least 50 dumps larger than 1000 square
meters. The majority of these areas are on the city's edge, near the entrances to colonias or on
vacant land throughout the city. The largest illegal dumps are those in Zaragoza, El Sauzal, Puerto
Anapra, Fronteriza Alta y Granjas Unidas de la Frontera. The smaller dumps are found at the
entrances to colonias like Municipio Libre, Tierra Nueva and Guadalajara.

Cd. Juárez generates 2,400 tons of garbage daily, 55% of it is of domestic origin and the rest is from
businesses or industry. Cd. Juárez has 80 trucks with which to pick up the waste generated in private
homes. Industry and business must contract with private agencies to have their garbage removed. In
February of this year Cd. Juárez mandated that industry and business must use officially approved
and recognized groups to remove their waste. Rodríguez said that this has made a large difference in
the amount of illegally handled waste. While the number of clandestine dumps has not been reduced,
the amount of waste thrown in them has diminished. At the same time the city landfill has seen an
increase in the amount of trash it has received since February.

The city has 23 waste disposal companies that have been authorized to handle non-toxic, solid waste
from business and industry. In the months ahead Rodríguez's inspectors will be fining companies that
are using illegal waste haulers.

Source: El Diario, August 2000. Article by Tania Fernández.

Caesarean-Section Rate At 75% In Private Ciudad Juárez Hospitals And Clinics

The Cd. Juárez newspaper El Norte reported on Tuesday, July 25, that 75% of births in the city's
private hospitals and clinics are via caesarean section. In public hospitals, according to the Mexican
Institute of Social Security (IMSS), the rate of caesarean sections for 1999's 15,680 births was
26%. By comparison, private hospitals in the US average a 30% c-section rate. In El Paso, the
c-section rate is acknowledged to be around 30% for private hospitals. Thomason Hospital has a
12% c-section rate as does the natural birth center Maternidad La Luz.

The main cause of the high c-section rate in Cd. Juárez's private hospitals and clinics is that their
physicians can make more money by performing the surgery. These same clinics and hospitals also
guarantee themselves return clients by allowing women to believe that future births after caesarean
section must again be by surgical means. This however is not true and virginal birth after delivery
(vbac) can have a very high success rate depending upon what the initial cause for c-section was. If
the c-section was performed for reasons of fetal distress the vbac success rate is 71 to 92%, for
problems of fetal presentation 84 to 91%, for failure to progress in labor 33 to 78%, and for having
twins the vbac success rate is 72%.

Across the border from Cd. Juárez is El Paso's Maternidad La Luz, a natural-birth center, where
most of the women who give birth are from Cd. Juárez and are Mexican citizens. Many of the
Mexican women are also doctors and dentists that understand the benefits of natural childbirth and
the dangers of c-section. According to Heather Sinclair, a midwife at the center, their c-section rate
is around 12% and they aim for a 5% rate. Five percent is the c-section rate in Sweden where there
is a high rate of natural childbirth and good prenatal care. Similarly, some US doctors that are
committed to drug- and technology-free birthing do both home births and hospital births and have
only a 4 to 5% c-section rate.

One idea put forth to protect women in Mexico from unnecessary c-sections is to pay the same for
c-sections and vaginal birth. Women should also know that they can have a vbac and understand that
caesarean sections are not risk-free operations. The mortality rate from c-sections is 0.8% with 37%
of the deaths resulting from direct problems from the operation and 21% from problems with
anesthesia. The other causes of death were infection, pulmonary embolism, complications from high
blood pressure and hemorrhaging.

Source: El Norte

Baja California Anti-Poverty Program Funding

Almost two and a half billion pesos in resources are destined to the Baja California anti-poverty program Programa de Combate a la Pobreza. According to Luis López Moctezuma, representative of the Department of Social Development (Secretaría de Desarrollo Social, Sedesol), the 2,431,000,000 pesos (approximately US$270,000,000) are a 98% increase over what was spent on fighting poverty in 1995.

Besides these resources the state also receives federal funding assigned from taxes that benefit the state and local governments. This brings the anti-poverty program funding to 11,782,000,000 pesos (approximately US$1,300,000,000) for the year 2000.

To help insure that everyone receives basic food products there are programs that assist 230,000 people in Baja California. This is 11% of the state's population.

The tortilla subsidy program (Programa de Subsidio a la Tortilla) gives one kilo (2.2 pounds) of fortified tortilla daily to 18,000 families. Yearly, 4,700,000 liters of milk are sold at half price to benefit 33,000 children in the state through the Licona program.

New Anti-addiction Program for Matamoros

A new anti-addiction program has begun in Matamoros and the Mexican secretary of health and the
governer of Tamaulipas were at its inauguration. Mexican Secretary of Health José Antonio Gonzáles
Fernández stated at the opening of the "Construct Your Life without Addictions" program that use of
certain drugs in Matamoros has decreased since 1993 when Tomás Yarrington was elected mayor
of the city. Yarrington is now the governor of Tamaulipas, an east coast border state. Drug use in the
city is also less than drug use nationally, González said.

Governor Yarrington said upon his arrival to the convention that Matamoros is a national example.
With the formation of the program Yarrington said that there is now one more weapon in the fight
against addictions. However, he added, it is up to the state's mayors to reduce the number of
alcohol-related accidents. Also, bars need to be better regulated and in general the health of young
people must be better protected.

Ernesto Rubio, the national commisioner of addiction control, said that men in Matamoros are much
more likely than women to become dependent on alcohol. For every three men dependent on the
drug, one woman is an alcoholic. He also added that 93% of accidents in the area are alcohol
related.

Source: El Mañana, August 16, 2000. Article by Norberto Lacarriere.

Baja California's Senior Population Grows

The Baja California State Population Council (Consejo Estatal de Población, Conepo) estimates that
in the year 2020 there will be more than 282,000 people over the age of 60 in Baja California.
Conepo's technical secretary Mario Plata Castaños also stated that in the next ten years in Mexico
the number of people over the age of 60 will increase from 5.7 million people to 10 million.

Over the next fifteen years Mexico's senior population will grow by 73% compared to 22% for the
entire population of the nation. To solve problems related to this growth new organizational forms will
be required. Towards those ends, August 28 has been declared National Senior Day throughout
Mexico and forums will be held to discuss problems related to the aging of Mexico's population.
Plata Castaños also stated that seniors offer indisputable social benefits as they are the carriers and
transmitters of social values, history and culture.