Volunteer paramedic beaten, attacked with bleach in Guerrero

Two men attacked a volunteer Red Cross paramedic in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero, Wednesday morning after accusing him of spreading the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

Mario Alberto Montiel Flores was returning to his home after a 24-hour shift at the local Red Cross medical center when two still unidentified men attacked him. They forced him to his knees, beat him and doused him with bleach.

“They just attacked my father. … They told him to stop spreading the coronavirus in Tlapa,” said Montiel’s son Luis Rafael, who called the attackers “ignorant and cowardly people who can’t do things out in the open.”

Attacks on health workers have been common in Mexico during the pandemic, and bleach a favored weapon to give the attacks figurative significance. A doctor in Oaxaca was attacked with bleach at the end of April by a man who said he was going to “disinfect” him.

Guerrero has seen at least eight incidents of harassment or attacks on health workers during the quarantine period, but Montiel received the worst injuries so far.

Municipal authorities reported that he is recovering from the blows he suffered and that the bleach did not harm any vital organs. He was wearing goggles at the time of the attack.

The incident sparked outrage in Tlapa, where the prosecutor’s office announced that it had opened an investigation.

Source: La Opción (sp)