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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2008 
Mexico Seeking 6 Additional Suspects in Capital Bombing
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
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| | Mexico City’s attorney general said a man tied to drugs tried to put a bomb in the car of a police official Friday when it blew up. (Gregory Bull/Associated Press) | | |
Mexico City – Police are seeking six additional suspects in connection with an explosion that killed one person and was apparently intended for a police commander, Mexico City's top prosecutor said Wednesday.
Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Felix Cardenas also said the homemade bomb, which exploded Friday just two blocks from police headquarters, was made from acetone peroxide – a material available in the marketplace that is tricky to turn into a bomb.
“It is very susceptible to heat, friction and contact,” Cardenas told the Televisa television network. Because of the material's instability, it is known as “Satan's mother,” he said.
Cardenas would not say whether he thought that instability caused the bomb to explode prematurely, killing Juan Carlos Meza Campos, 44, as he carried it down the street.
An autopsy showed Meza was high on cocaine at the time, said Felipe Takajashi, director of the city's medical forensic services.
The blast also wounded Tania Vazquez, 22, who was captured on a surveillance video walking with Meza. She is still hospitalized and is being treated as a suspect.
Cardenas said authorities are looking for six more suspects, but he did not elaborate.
The preliminary investigation has led police to Vazquez's home neighborhood of Tepito, a rough area known for drug dealing and pirated goods, according to Cardenas.
Cardenas repeated previous claims that the intended target of the bomb was a Mexico City police official, but he told Televisa that authorities did not have enough information yet to determine which one.
A man who says he is Meza's brother told police Meza was divorced, struggled with money and alcohol problems and had difficulty keeping a job, the attorney general's office said in a statement. Jesus Alberto Meza Campos also said his brother was estranged from the rest of the family.
Investigators still have not identified a motive for the bombing.
Deadly Bomb in Mexico Was Meant for the Police
Antonio Betancourt & James C. McKinley Jr. - NYTimes
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Mexico City — Investigators have determined that a man linked to drug traffickers was trying to plant a bomb in a police official’s car when it blew up and killed him on a busy avenue here last week, the city’s attorney general said.
The attorney general, Rodolfo Félix Cárdenas, said Wednesday that six more people were being sought in connection with the explosion on Friday.
The blast unsettled the residents of the capital, which had so far escaped much of the drug violence that has racked other parts of the country.
The announcement on Monday that drug traffickers were behind the attack strengthened the impression that the struggle between the government and drug cartels had entered a new phase.
The bomber who died was identified as Juan Manuel Meza Campos, 44. Prosecutors say a woman injured in the blast, Tania Vázquez Muñoz, 22, was shown accompanying Mr. Meza, arm in arm, by a video surveillance camera just before the explosion. She is now considered a suspect, the authorities said.
The case has fascinated Mexicans, as each day more and more details emerge and the police piece together what happened.
“The investigation is very advanced,” Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said Monday. “We know the target was a high-ranking official of the Public Safety Ministry.
“If their aim is to intimidate us,” Mr. Ebrard added, “they are not going to succeed.”
Security tapes from an area not far from the blast show the couple getting into a blue sedan, driving off and then reappearing 10 minutes later. The tapes were shown to reporters at a news conference.
The couple then got out of the car carrying a plastic bag and started walking down Chapultepec Avenue toward a parking lot used by city police officials, whose headquarters is nearby, officials said.
The target, officials said, was a police commander; he has not been identified.
The bomb was made of acetone peroxide, a highly unstable substance, and went off in Mr. Meza’s hand before he and Ms. Vázquez arrived at the parking lot. The explosion killed him.
Ms. Vázquez was burned over half her body; hospital officials said she was in stable condition.
Mr. Cárdenas said Mr. Meza, who went by the nickname El Pipén, had links to drug dealers in a high-crime neighborhood called Tepito, where there is a lively trade in drugs and contraband goods.
The explosion took place against a backdrop of escalating violence between drug traffickers and the police across the country, as President Felipe Calderón has mounted a large offensive with troops and federal agents to dismantle drug cartels.
Mexico has endured a series of gun battles, grenade attacks and gangland-style killings as a result, leaving more than 2,500 people dead in the past year.
The police in the capital have also made significant drug arrests in recent days, which may have prompted the failed bombing, officials said. |
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