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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2007 
Mexico Rebels Vow More Attacks
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Pressgo to original
| | Mexican soldiers patrol the hills near the site of an explosion at a gas pipeline belonging to state oil monopoly Pemex near Maltrata in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz September 10, 2007. Six explosions caused by sabotage hit pipelines in Mexico on Monday, disrupting oil and natural gas supplies and forcing thousands from their homes, following similar attacks in July by leftist rebels. (Reuters/Imelda Medina) |
Mexico City - A rebel group claiming responsibility for gas pipeline explosions that cost Mexican businesses millions of dollars said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press Thursday that the attacks will continue until authorities release two rebels they believe are in government custody.
"Hand over our companions alive, and the acts of self-defense will stop," the tiny Revolutionary People's Army, or EPR, told the government, in an apparent reference to two EPR members the group claims were detained and tortured by security forces in May.
The government has denied holding the men. On Thursday, Attorney General Eduardo Medina suggested that the pair — who have not been seen since their disappearance — may have fallen victim to internal divisions within the guerrilla movement.
"It is possible that these people are being held by members within the same organization, or by similar groups," Medina told reporters.
In the statement, the rebels dismissed such speculation as a smoke screen aimed at "covering up the government's responsibility" in the disappearances. The message was similar to previous communiques from the group in language and style, and came from the same e-mail address, but it could not independently be authenticated.
Medina also said the six explosions that damaged state-owned oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos' pipelines on Monday were "the work of criminals and had the typical characteristics of acts of terrorism and sabotage."
He described the EPR as "a relatively small group, but certainly with a violent attitude," and said the explosions have accomplished nothing other than to distract law enforcement from tackling organized crime and drug traffickers.
A secretive Marxist group that killed dozens of police and soldiers in the late 1990s, the EPR initially claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement posted to a Web site that has aired its statements in the past.
It said it carried out the explosions to press for the release of the two EPR members and to protest alleged repression of political opponents and other dissidents by the government of President Felipe Calderon.
The group made similar statements in July when it claimed responsibility for explosions along a pipeline between Mexico City and Guadalajara.
Medina said the mix of plastic and chemical explosives used in Monday's attacks were similar to those used in July. |
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