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Description
In early July, the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR) launched a series of attacks on oil and gas pipelines operated by the state-run oil company PEMEX in central Mexico, paralyzing business operations in some communities in the heavily industrialized states of Queretaro, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, and Jalisco. The EPR said it placed eight bombs along pipelines, with one causing a major explosion near the community of Corregidora in Queretaro. The EPR emerged during the 1990s in the impoverished state of Guerrero, pledging to punish wealthy elites and government officials for keeping the country in poverty (see SourceMex, 1996-09-18). After the recent explosions, the EPR issued a statement saying its actions were part of a "national campaign of harassment against the interests of the oligarchy and of this illegitimate government that has been put in motion."
In a second communique in mid-July, the group added a demand: the release of two of its members, Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Raymundo Rivera Bravo, who were allegedly being detained in Oaxaca state. The Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB) said, however, that neither individual was in federal custody and that there was no evidence that state authorities in Oaxaca were holding them.
Attacks target industrial states
The first set of explosions, which occurred on July 5, damaged valves in three PEMEX pipelines: one connecting Guanajuato and Guadalajara, and two others in the cities of Salamanca and Celaya in Guanajuato state. The fourth incident occurred at the PEMEX facility outside Corregidora, where a huge explosion severed several pipelines, including one used to transport natural gas to local distributors and another that supplied a local refinery with crude oil.
The attacks created a natural-gas shortage in parts of the four-state area and forced hundreds of companies to curtail or suspend operations, including Nissan de Mexico, Honda Motor Co., Grupo Modelo, Grupo Vitro, and Hershey de Mexico.
"There are more than a thousand, nearly 1,200, companies that have... |
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