EPR Guerrilla Group Claims
Pemex Bombings in Central Mexico

The leftist Popular Revolutionary Army says it
attacked six pipelines to force Mexico to
return two missing militants. 

MARIA ANTONIETA URIBE & HÉCTOR TOBAR
Los Angeles Times 12sep2007

MALTRATA, MEXICO —  A leftist guerrilla group claimed credit Tuesday for the bombing attacks a day earlier of six Pemex pipelines in central Mexico, as officials conceded it was impossible for police and army troops to protect the company's vast fuel-distribution network.

The Popular Revolutionary Army, known by the initials EPR in Spanish, said 12 of its "military units" had undertaken the attacks in Veracruz and Tlaxcala states to force the government to hand over two EPR militants who disappeared this year. The EPR says the men were arrested in Oaxaca, but officials there deny they detained them.

On Tuesday, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, officials said the attacks had caused a 25% drop in the supply of natural gas available to consumers across Mexico. At least 10 states reported natural gas shortages. Several factories remained closed for lack of fuel, including the Volkswagen plant in Puebla.

Fires set off at the bombed pipelines were largely contained Tuesday. But Pemex officials said it may take days to repair the severed lines.

Coming two months after similar attacks in the states of Guanajuato and Queretaro, the bombings were a blow to the government of Felipe Calderon, who has made security a centerpiece of his presidency.

In Maltrata, a town of about 15,000 in Veracruz state, most residents returned home a day after explosions at a concrete Pemex structure less than a mile outside the town limits. The small building contained a valve station linked to three lines that carried gasoline and natural gas. The town sits in a small valley and many residents fled to the surrounding hillsides in the midst of a heavy rainstorm.

"At about 2 a.m., the ground shook, and we heard a thunder clap," said resident Genaro Marcelino. "We grabbed what we could, ran out of the house and into the hills. It was raining cats and dogs. We saw the sky light up."

Authorities said no one was injured in the blasts. Maltrata residents said only one person lived near the exploded building: a squatter who mysteriously moved out of his shack a day before it was singed by the explosion.

"This time we all lived to tell the tale, but next time, who knows," said Delia Vera, a fruit vendor. Like others here, she expressed frustration with both the guerrillas and the government. "Let Calderon work out his things, and not get us mixed up in his problems."

A few residents were too afraid to return to their homes and spent another night in emergency shelters. "It was frightening," said 13-year-old Gerardo Grande Dominguez. "All I saw was the sky turn orange."

Officials said the method employed in the attack was similar to July bombings for which EPR claimed responsibility. Monday's devices used shaped plastic explosives, known as "sausage" bombs, and were detonated remotely by cellphones.

On Monday, one bomb was discovered intact, with a message attached. "Alive you took them, alive we want them back," the note read, in an apparent reference to the missing militants.

Local news reported that army troops had been briefly posted to the Maltrata pipelines after the July attacks. An army bomb squad surveyed several miles of the line near Maltrata after an anonymous threat on July 18 but declared the incident a "false alarm."

Pemex general director Jesus Reyes Heroles said Tuesday that the state-owned distribution network, which includes 30,000 miles of pipelines, was simply too large to guard completely.

"To think that we can protect with private guards or armed forces, is impossible," he told reporters.

Others say the attacks point to failures in Mexico's intelligence agencies, which have been humbled by a relatively small group of rebels, many of whom are well known by authorities.

The EPR was founded in the Pacific state of Guerrero in the mid-1990s but has split into half a dozen groups. The core of the EPR group linked to the pipeline attacks is made up of five extended families based in the southern state of Oaxaca, according to a military intelligence report obtained by the newspaper El Universal in July.

The report identifies one leader as Paulino Cruz Sanchez, a man who also goes by the name Tiburcio Cruz Sanchez and by the nicknames "the Professor" and "Pancho Riatas."

Cruz Sanchez is "an explosives expert with more than four decades in the clandestine armed struggle," the report says. His brother Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez is one of the two men whose release is demanded in EPR communiqués.

Tuesday's communiqué, sent to several Mexican newspapers, said Calderon's government was waging a "dirty war" against dissent.

Uribe reported from Maltrata and Tobar from Mexico City.

source: 13sep2007

VW Mexico Suspends Production for 4 Days
Following Attacks on Gas Pipelines

Thomson Financial / CNN 11sep2007

PUEBLA, Mexico, Sep. 11, 2007 -- Production at Volkswagen AG's factory at Puebla in Mexico has been suspended for 4 days due to gas shortages following attacks on the PEMEX gas pipeline network by a leftist guerrilla group yesterday.

The factory management said the stoppage of will see the loss of production of 7,200 vehicles.

Hundreds of companies which rely on natural gas to function were forced to temporarily lay-off workers in ten states in the centre and east of the country.

It was the second time in three months that the so-called People's Revolutionary Army, known as the EPR, claimed responsibility for a pipeline attack as part of what it has labeled its 'prolonged people's war' against 'the anti-people government.' The EPR claimed responsibility for a July attack on a major gas pipeline from Mexico City to Guadalajara in western Mexico that forced at least a dozen major companies, including Honda Motor Co. (NYSE:HMC) , Kellogg Co (NYSE:K) and The Hershey Co (NYSE:HSY) , to suspend or scale back operations.

Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex

source: 13sep2007

Mexico Gas Line Explosions
Force Major Factories to Close Down

AP / The Canadian Press 12sep2007

MEXICO CITY — More than 60 per cent of Mexico's steel production was halted and two major auto plants, including Volkswagen's only manufacturing facility in North America, shut down Tuesday after explosions claimed by a leftist group cut natural gas supplies.

Petroleos Mexicanos said the attacks on its oil and natural gas pipelines would cause hundreds of millions of dollars in production losses for the state-owned oil company and affect 10 states. Private-sector groups told Mexican news media that the attacks and subsequent precautionary shutdowns would cost businesses close to US$90 million.

Mexico's steel industry chamber Canacero said Tuesday that more than 60 per cent of the country's steel production has been halted, and that it could take up to seven days to resume.

In a statement, Canacero said losses would "significantly" exceed the $36 million the industry suffered from similar attacks on pipelines in July.

The six explosions affected a dozen natural gas pipelines and one oil pipeline in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, sending flames and black smoke shooting into the air but causing no direct injuries. The blasts occurred at valve stations where different pipelines intersect.

Industry and national-security experts say the small leftist group claiming responsibility has proved it is a force to be reckoned with.

"The sophistication required to plan, co-ordinate and execute these explosions shows that the perpetrators have the technical capability of turning these episodes into either terrorist attacks or industrial sabotage," George Baker, a Houston-based energy analyst who follows Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, wrote in a report.

The Revolutionary People's Army, or EPR, a secretive Marxist group that killed dozens of police and soldiers during attacks in the late 1990s, claimed responsibility for the explosions in a statement e-mailed to various news organizations on Tuesday, the Reforma and El Universal newspapers reported on their websites.

The organization said it had placed 12 explosive devices, including one that did not detonate, on an equal number of pipelines and would continue to do so to demand the release of two group members missing since May. It also said it was protesting President Felipe Calderon's alleged repression of political opponents, human rights defenders and "social fighters."

The group made similar statements in July, when it claimed responsibility for explosions along a pipeline between Mexico City and Guadalajara.

The EPR, which says it is waging a "prolonged people's war" against "the anti-people government," had been weakened by internal divisions and was largely inactive in recent years.

"But something has changed because now they have the capacity to attack pipelines," said Mexican national-security analyst Jorge Chabat. "They're acting outside their regular sphere of influence and that is a problem."

Chabat said the group's ability to deal a strong blow to the economy is no small matter. "If they can attack Pemex pipelines, well then yes, you have to take them seriously."

Pemex chief Jesus Reyes said Monday it will take four or five days from the time the company can start repair work for natural gas to be restored.

The gas shutdown forced Volkswagen AG to suspend production at its sprawling car factory outside the central city of Puebla, possibly until Monday. Chrysler LLC's plant in Toluca, outside Mexico City, was also shut Tuesday and could be idled for up to five days, union officials said. Natural gas is used for heating purposes in industrial processes, such as in steel blast furnaces.

Mexican news media reported that more than 1,000 businesses had been affected in 10 states.

source: 13sep2007