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Gas Lines Attacked in Mexico

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July 17, 2007 09:57 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
June 8, 2007

Mexico condemns three gas line blasts as attacks on nation

By MARK STEVENSON | The Associated Press
July 11, 2007

MEXICO CITY Mexico's government said Tuesday that a series of gas pipeline explosions were attacks aimed at weakening the nation's democratic institutions after a small, leftist rebel group claimed responsibility.

The Interior Department said it was stepping up security at "strategic installations" across Mexico after an explosion Tuesday at a pipeline run by the state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, and two other blasts that rocked gas ducts on Thursday. No one was injured in the blasts.

"The Mexican government categorically condemns the attacks against Pemex facilities. This criminal conduct aims to weaken democratic institutions, the patrimony of Mexicans and the safety of their families," the statement said.

While officials said investigations were continuing into the cause of the blasts, the statement by the Interior Department, responsible for domestic security, came a short time after a small guerrilla group said its members had planted explosives on the pipelines.

The rebel statement said "three combined squads of urban and rural units ... have carried out surgical harassment actions by placing eight explosive packs on the Pemex pipelines." Posted on a Web site that serves as a clearinghouse for bulletins from armed groups, the statement demanded the release of two men detained in southern Oaxaca state in May and others it identified as "political prisoners."

The city of Oaxaca was seized by leftist groups for five months in 2006 before federal police broke up barricades and protest camps in October and arrested dozens.

While guerrilla groups in Colombia have regularly attacked energy facilities, the tactic hasn't been used much in Mexico.

It was impossible to independently confirm the claim, made by the "military zone command of the People's Revolutionary Army," or EPR, a tiny group that has largely been inactive in recent years. However, a breakaway faction of the group had issued similar demands in a communique sent to The Associated Press in June.

Tuesday's explosion forced the evacuation of communities around the town of Coroneo, near the central city of Queretaro, but caused no damage outside of the pipeline's installations, Pemex said in a statement.

Service was suspended on the 36-inch pipeline that runs between Mexico City and Guadalajara. The company didn't say when it would be restored.

On Thursday, two explosions at another Pemex pipeline in nearby Guanajuato state forced evacuations but caused no injuries.

Work was temporarily halted at a Honda car plant in Guadalajara, the government news agency Notimex reported Tuesday.

The EPR staged several attacks in southern Mexico in the 1990s. Tuesday's statement was signed both by the EPR and a splinter group known as the People's Democratic Revolutionary Party.

I heard about this the other day, and am just getting around to looking it up.  I wonder what our used to be U.S. companies think about this.



Common Sense and Persistance. Do not shoot from the hip, read and learn.
July 17, 2007 10:04 PM    View printable version     Link to this comment   
Member Since:
June 8, 2007

Thursday, July 12, 2007 - Page updated at 02:03 AM

Attacks on Mexican gas line shut factories

By LISA J. ADAMS

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Honda, Hershey and other multinational companies temporarily shut down their factories in western Mexico on Wednesday after rebels attacked a key natural gas pipeline.

The small left-wing guerrilla group that claimed responsibility for the pipeline explosions issued a statement late Tuesday vowing to continue the attacks, while the Mexican government scrambled to increase security at "strategic installations" across Mexico.

Officials from Mexico's state-owned oil and gas monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said an explosion Tuesday and two more last week affected different sections of the same pipeline extending from central Mexico City to Guadalajara, the industry-rich capital of the western state of Jalisco. The company sent 150 workers to repair the line.

At least a dozen companies including Grupo Modelo SA, Mexico's largest beer maker, were forced to suspend or scale back operations because of the lack of natural gas, the daily newspaper Excelsior reported. Total business losses were being estimated at more than $6.4 million a day, Excelsior reported, citing unidentified sources. The blast in the central state of Querétaro damaged a 36-inch pipeline, cutting supplies to the cities of Guadalajara, Querétaro, Aguascalientes and Leon. Pemex said the gas would probably not be restored until Friday at the earliest, but was working to provide alternative means of delivery.

The group that claimed responsibility for the pipeline attacks is the "military zone command of the People's Revolutionary Army," or EPR, a tiny rebel band that attacked government and police installations in southern Mexico in the 1990s.

The EPR said its members had planted explosives on the pipeline. Mexican security officials on Tuesday confirmed that the pipeline had been attacked, but did not identify suspects or say whether explosives were involved.

The group said it would continue its attacks until the government released Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Raymundo Rivera Bravo, and others it described as political prisoners in the southern state of Oaxaca. Leftist groups took over Oaxaca's capital for five months last year before police took it back and arrested dozens.

But the federal Attorney General's office said Wednesday that neither Reyes nor Rivera had been detained by federal authorities, and that there was no evidence they were in state custody.

Pamela K. Starr, a Latin America analyst at the Eurasia Group in Washington, called the attacks "mostly symbolic, limited by the small size and logistical capacity of the group."

George Baker, a Houston-based energy analyst, said the attacks represent only minor headaches for the monopoly.



Common Sense and Persistance. Do not shoot from the hip, read and learn.

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