Bombs exploded at three high-profile targets in Mexico City early on the morning of Nov. 6, causing property damage but no injuries. A door was damaged and windows blown out at the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE), a body which had angered leftists in September for ruling that conservative candidate Felipe Calderon won July’s disputed presidential race. Glass and ceiling panels covered the floor of an annex building at the headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), now embroiled in a bitter conflict in the state of Oaxaca. An explosion also tore apart the metal and glass facade of a branch of Canada’s Scotiabank. A fourth bomb at another bank failed to detonate. (Reuters, Nov. 6)
At a press conference in Oaxaca City’s Santo Domingo Cultural Center, Flavio Sosa and other leaders of the Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) insisted that their struggle is a peaceful one and that they have no links to the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) or any other guerilla group. (El Universal, Nov. 6)
Supposed guerilla attacks in Oaxaca City earlier this year were also used in a bid to discredit the APPO, and there was a similar incident during the 2002 protests at the National Autonomous University. See WW4 REPORT #64.
See our last posts on Mexico and the Oaxaca crisis, and the guerilla movement.
Guerillas take credit
From El Universal, Nov. 7 (our translation):
Five guerilla groups claimed responsibility yesterday for the three bomb explosions in Mexico City, as a response to the incursion of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) in Oaxaca, to demand the resignation of the state’s governor Ulises Ruiz, and to press for the release of the country’s political prisoners.
The subversive groups also demanded the punishment of those responsible for torture and sexual abuse of social activists in Mexico.
The communique was signed by the Lucio Cabañas Barrientos Revolutionary Movement (MRLCB), the Revolutionary Democratic Tendency-Army of the People (TDR-EP), the May 1 Insurgent Organization (OI1M), the December 2 Execution Brigade (BA2D) and the Popular Liberation Brigades (BPL)…
The Democratic Revolutionary Tendency movement said there were eight explosives planted at different points in the city: two in the Plutarco Elías Calles auditorium of the national PRI headquarters; another in the Sanborn’s [chian store] at Insurgentes Norte and Amado Nervo, outside the PRI headquarters; another two in the offices of the Federal Electoral Tribunal; two more in the intallations of Scotiabank and a final one at another bank branch in Residencial Cafetales.
The subversive groups stated: “Let this serve as a message warning against any government attempt to use our political-military arsenal as a pretext to generate psychosis in the citizenry and to continue repressing the various civil, peaceful organizations and movements.”
In their communique, the groups praised as “heroic” the movement led by the Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) against “the state and federal government authoritarianism and repression.”
It condmened the intervention of the PFP, the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and the Center of Investigationand National Security (Cisen) as “violent and criminal”, supported by “the red shirts” and various police agencies of the state [Oaxaca, presumably].
On Aug. 30, a column of combatants of these same groups appeared in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca with another communique in which they warned the federal and state governments that a resort to the use of force would “open the path for forceful action by our comandos and military units in the state of Oaxaca.”
Carrying AK-47 rifles, with bandanas on their faces, small arms and radio-communication equipment, they indicated that the situation in the state capital “only expresses the grave crisis which we find in all the institutions of government…”
Official reaction, more bombs
Mexican federal lawmakers Nov. 7 blocked a planned visit by President Vicente Fox to Australia and Vietnam next week, citing the political upheaval at home. (Reuters, Nov. 7)
Two grenades tossed from a building exploded at the Pacific resort of Ixtapa in Guerrero state Nov. 6 hours before president-elect Felipe Calderon arrived for a visit. (Reuters, Nov. 7)
Police also reported finding a back-pack bomb left in Mexico City’s exclusive Zona Rosa. (El Universal, Nov. 7)