Thursday, July 12, 2007

PIPELINE GOES "BOOM" IN MEXICO


A statement from Mexico's “People’s Revolutionary Army” (EPR) claimed responsibility for several blasts over the past week, including one yesterday which caused the shutdown of an oil pipeline run by government-controlled firm PEMEX.

The Guerrilla News Network reported the EPR 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.” The statement demanded the release of two men detained in southern Oaxaca state in May, and others it identified as “political prisoners.”

A number of multinational companies in Mexico have been forced to shut down as a result of the explosions. Some of the dozen or so companies that closed were Honda Motor Co., Kellogg Co.'s, The Hershey Co., Nissan Motor Co. The disruption affected clients in the industry-rich city of Guadalajara, capital of the western state of Jalisco; the industrial city of Leon, in the central state of Guanajuato; and the central states of Queretaro and Aguascalientes.

Pemex said the gas would probably not be restored until Friday at the earliest.

The EPR said the bombings were the signal of the beginning of its campaign against the interests of “the oligarchy and of this illegitimate government.”

Perhaps it is coincidence, perhaps not, that the communique used the term "illegitamate government." Andres Manuel López Obrador, who "lost" the 2006 election to Felipe Calderon by less than 0.6 percentage point, uses the same term for the current administration.

The following is from the blog "Global Guerrillas."

JOURNAL: Just-in-time Disruption begins in Mexico

"The order to begin a national campaign of punishing the interests of the oligarchy and this illegitimate government has been put in play.." EPR Web site message after the attacks.

Mexico's Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), a splinter of the original group formed in 96 (in south-west Mexico), blew up a PEMEX 36-inch natural gas pipeline that shut down two auto assembly plants (Nissan/Honda) in Guadalajara. Two other pipelines were shut down (gas and crude oil) affecting the Salamanca oil refinery (domestic production).

The operation was small, and according to the group required eight charges set by small teams in three locations. The charges were set with a time delay (to detonate on the 5th and the 10th in the early morning). Nobody was caught and there were zero casualties. I suspect the returns on investment for the attacks, particularly given their ability to impact just-in-time production facilities, were amazing.

Unconfirmed update (from the comments below): 800 businesses have been shut down in addition to the gas supply to Guadalajara, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, León y Celaya. The cascade's effects grow...

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