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Cozumel News July 7th, 2014: In today’s articles the very sad subject of the high rate of suicide among locals in our island paradise of Cozumel and preventive measures being taken at our ports to continue to keep out the Chikungunya Virus. Last, of all a new section is in place in The Cozumel Sun, Volunteer and Donate. I started it with the Three Kings Day Project and will add over the next few weeks, the Cozumel Cruz Roja, The Cozumel Humane Society, Universal Horse Sanctuary, Juan Pablo II Senior Home, The Trashy Group, CAM School, and the Rotary Club of Cozumel, for starters. If you are in charge of these organizations, please send me the information on your program, specific volunteer and donation needs, contact information as well as photographs and videos. I want to give your organization a full-page in the sun with a link that would also take potential volunteers and donors directly to your website. This is one of my most important undertakings since creating the Sun, PLEASE HELP ME.

Suicide, a social problem

Alcoholism, breakdown of the family, debt, unemployment, family problems, low self-esteem, and loss of values, are factors considered in Cozumel a cocktail that has resulted in 26 suicides in a span of two and half years .

So far the first half of 2014 there have been seven suicides in Cozumel, the first happened on April 16 when a person named Juan José Young Pérez took his life, the second occurred on May 1, this time Julio César Domínguez Hernández, a mason hanged himself; on May 9, an engineer and former State and City official by the name of Ernesto Candelario Vivas Anduze deprived himself of existence. In the same month but on the 31st, a woman named Sara Marquina Hernández opted for suicide by hanging.

On June 22, another woman named Consuelo Martínez ended her existence also by way of hanging, on June 29 Lilí Ricardez Flores ended her existence by the same method, and on July 2^nd a young man named Jairus Israel Helguera Tún was found dead hanging from his hammock.

 A View from the Catholic Church:

Father,Manuel Jesús Prieto Priest at Corpus Christi Church, argues that there is a large crisis of values ​​in Cozumel, and if you add to that financial problems, family problems, divorce, alcoholism, it is not only one, is a chain of factors, there is a current uprooting. Great influences are the breakdown of the family, and the lack of spiritual roots. If the floor moves from under you and you do not have something to hold on to, you collapse, then comes a landslide. It is a cocktail of factors that will end in tragedy, it is not a simple thing, the problem is very complex and there are many factors involved. Father Prieto said that he considers the major factors to be the crisis of values, dysfunctional families, and a high consumption of alcohol in Cozumel.

He spoke about the spiritual retreats that the Catholic Church offers that address depression for people in need in many ways, but points out that there is a problem when people do not seek help.  He described that there are good psychologists in official institutions to support those depressed, but explains that there are people who do not seek help because the depression itself prevents them from asking for help because they find no reason to live.

He expressed his opinion to Adriana Teissier (Municipal Exsíndico and Past President of the former Committee for Suicide Prevention), here in Cozumel, that he is convinced by his own experience, that over 70 percent of families are disintegrated by alcohol and it is causing emotional damage to the children who are being dragged into it; alcohol is greatly affecting the island. He pointed out that the  Catholic Church also runs programs for women, for teens, and inner healing.

 A  View from the Judicial Police:

The commander of the Judicial Police, Angel Ramón Vázquez, considers these suicide cases to be of people with low self-esteem, who have problems with their family, at home, or with their partners; and in a certain way do not have the means to get help to get out of the emotional problems, and opt for suicide as the only solution.

He stated that in most cases the Judicial Police has handled, they see  the same tenor of family problems or that the deceased suffered from alcoholism. Alcoholism,  he believes,  takes away the fear to end one’s life, without weighing in that it is a journey of no return and that it will leave a deep pain to his family.

He also emphasizes that  a variety of factors are involved when some people make the decision to commit suicide, among many family problems  is infidelity among couples, economic hardship, unemployment, alienation with parents or partner, separation of marriages or of cohabitants, and  alcoholism; but everything could be solved if there were relevant assistance, i.e. departments or programs that could give counsel and orientation to people at  high risk of depression  to avoid ending their existence..

Ramón Vázquez pointed out that  the media reports  that Quintana Roo is one of the states where the most people have taken their own lives, insomuch that you get to thinking that the people here suffer from very low self-esteem and find no reason which to live. There have been cases where the people who  kill themselves leave a posthumous letter.  This translates as a sign that the person demonstrates a marked and no interest to continue living and had plotted for some time how to end their existence. He stressed that people who end their life do not think about the pain they will cause their family, children, mothers, husbands, and wives, all who stay alive and suffer the shock of their death.  He added  that the bereaved are left with the burden of caring for the children of the deceased generally.

 The Statistics:

In 2012 there were ten deaths by suicide, all by way of hanging. The deceased had a range of occupations, a mason, fisherman, cook, and unemployed people. All those who took their lives in 2012 were male ages ranging from 16 to 55 years.   Three of them lived in Colonia Emiliano Zapata, three in San Gervasio, and the other in Independence, Flores Magón, San Miguel Dos, and CTM.

In 2013 there were nine suicides, two of these were female, and the most unfortunate is that one of them was a 12-year-old. She was a student at the primary school “Sara Maria Rivero “in the Colony of San Gervasio. She hung herself from a belt inside the bathroom at home. Attempts to save her life at General Hospital failed. The occupations of people who committed suicide that year were car washer, housewife, masons, cook, a student, and a chauffeur. The other female died in the IMSS clinic; the rest died in the colonies Emiliano Zapata, Gonzalo Guerrero, Andrés Quintana Roo, Flores Magón, Repobladores, San Miguel Uno, and in the transversal road.

 Health Surveillance in the Ports

Disease surveillance is kept on the docks for cruise ships to prevent Chikungunya virus in Cozumel. The effort continues with the communication between the captains of cruise ships with International Health, and the continued monitoring of Ovitraps in areas of the port.

Vivas Víctor González, Director of the Port Authority of Quintana Roo in Cozumel (Apiqroo), mentioned that the strategies of the Ministry of Health to maintain zero cases of Chikungunya in Cozumel are paying off, as to date there have been no reported symptoms nor have they detected a tourist or crew member with the illness.

He said that since the emergence of this disease in Africa and Central America, the State Governor Roberto Borge Angulo, gave instructions to the Secretary of Health, Juan Ortegón Pacheco, to take the necessary actions in port facilities and instructed the staff of International Health to be more attentive to the tourists arriving aboard cruise ships docking at Puerta Maya pier, SSA Mexico and Punta Langosta.

He said that about ten days ago he met with Epidemiologists in his office that had placed Ovitraps offshore of the harbors in  Apiqroo port facilities, the ferry harbor, in Puerto de Abrigo Marina, , including the San Miguel pier . These Ovitraps are the same as those being monitored weekly to prevent the mosquito Aedes aegypti from having a presence in these facilities.

He confirmed that International Health is present at the arrival of each cruise ship to received from the hands of the captain of the ship, a list of  passengers and to tell him that if any of the passengers have any symptoms such as fever or vomiting, they are not to be allowed to disembark, as a preventive measures to make sure that the disease does not reach Cozumel.

Las Catrinas at New Especias

Saturdays: DJ 10 p.m. – 3 a.m.
Sundays: Salvador Formento 8:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.
New ESPECIAS Restaurant

3rd South between 5th & 10th

Thursdays – Tuesdays 6:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Closed Wednesdays

Blue Angel Restaurant

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