Thursday, July 19, 2007

MEXICO EPR SET OFF BOMBS FOR DEMANDS





If we were you we would stay the hell out of Mexico!

MEXICO CITY, July 16 (Reuters) - President Felipe Calderon urged lawmakers on Monday to beef up Mexico's police intelligence, warning that security forces have no way of predicting further rebel bomb attacks on fuel pipelines

Mexico, the world's No. 9 exporter of crude oil by volume and a key supplier to the United States, has a network of pipelines that stretches for more than 14,000 km (8,700 miles), much of that in remote areas.

The EPR set off a series of bombs at pipelines in central Mexico carrying natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, crude oil and gasoline. It said it would continue its actions until the release of two fellow activists it believes were jailed or abducted in May.

The blasts hit state oil company Pemex's domestic supplies, and forced some manufacturers to temporarily shut down operations, but crude oil exports were not affected.

The Marxist-inspired EPR emerged in 1996 and was active in the poor southern states of Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca and Chiapas, but has always kept a low profile and mainly conducted its campaign via the Internet in recent years.

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