30 March 2009

Good day, everyone.

This weekend we traveled to Chilpancingo, the state capital of Guerrero. I had a meeting with   General Ramon Arriola Ibarría, who is the Undersecretary of prevention and police of the state. He told us that he received orders to provide security and to help us in logistics.  The main points he brought out where:

• Our meeting will have a special protection from the police of the state of Guerrero during all the time of the symposium (similar to that which he provided to the national banking association last week)
• We can have an escort from the airport to the venue if we want
• All the areas where the attendees go (hotels) will be watched by the guards
• The tourist zones are always secure; there is a permament presence of police, including the beach
• There are two   police corporations: One from the city of Acapulco and another from The State of Guerrero.
• He will write a letter and I will received by Wednesday.
• We will have a meeting with him 2 weeks before to plan the details of security.

From there we traveled to Acapulco and visited the main sea coast area as well as the diamante zone (the venue). We interviewed local citizens, taxi drivers and police. The cons censes is that the only security concerns are in marginal areas and that the violence that has occurred is between gangs which the police have already controlled. In general the population was surprised by the question and insisted the felt very secure especially in the tourist portions of Acapulco.

We can be sure that everything is going to be great.

¡Si se puede!

Best Regards

Tony

Ma. Antonieta Flores Muñoz MD
IASP SIG Council Pain in Childhood
http://childpain.org
Clínica del Dolor y Cuidados Paliativos
Hospital General de México OD

Come to the 8th International Symposium on Pediatric Pain in Acapulco, Mexico, June 7-11, 2009--www.ispp2009mexico.com You will enjoy it.