The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) is claiming responsibility for another series of explosions that went off today on Mexico’s natural gas pipeline. This time around the attack caused national and international corporations were shut down in Mexico and many of these corporations will be facing millions of dollars in losses, according to CNNMoney.

Vitro SAB, a Mexican company that makes glass containers, said the shutdown of two plants would cost it about $800,000 a day. Vitro said in a statement that it was increasing production at other plants in Mexico to minimize effects on customers.

It is being reported that Honda Motor Co, Kellogg Co’s, The Hershey Co, Nissan Motor Co, and Grupo Modelo SA were forced to suspend or scale back operations because of the lack of natural gas. Service was suspended on the 36-inch (91-centimeter) pipeline that runs between Mexico City and the industry-rich city of Guadalajara, capital of the western state of Jalisco. Service are also suspended in the industrial city of Leon, in the central state of Guanajuato and the central states of Queretaro and Aguascalientes. Pemex told reporters that the gas would probably not be restored until Friday at the earliest, but was working to provide alternate means of delivery.

TIME Magazine reports that the association representing the Mexican industry said it was looking into the extent of the explosions’ financial impact.

There seems to be another communique issued late Tuesday by the EPR said it was waging a “prolonged people’s war.”

“We have started a national campaign of harassment against the economic interests of the oligarchy and the anti-people government, and declare those interests as legitimate military targets,”

The group said it would continue its attacks until the government released Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Raymundo Rivera Bravo, and others it described as political prisoners in the southern state of Oaxaca. The question that is begged to be asked who is Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Raymundo Rivera Bravo? And why is the EPR referencing two people who the government is claiming they haven’t been detained in a statement about blowing things up for institutional change? It is a pretty severe accusation to include them in a statement that is claiming responsibility for the attack.

The news media are trying to pass them off as “sympathizers of the leftist rebel group,” but after investigating this a little further, it seems there is more to this. According to Edmundo Reyes Amaya’s daughter, Nadín Reyes Maldonado, Reyes Amaya disappeared on May 23, 2007.

Mi padre, salió de mi casa el día miércoles 23 de mayo por la noche en autobús, como de costumbre ya que viajaba cada mes o tres meses a Oaxaca para visitar a su mamá. El día en que el salió iba vestido de playera de algodón manga larga de color negra con rayitas blancas, gorra azul y pantalón de mezclilla. Como en otras ocasiones mi padre sale este día de la ciudad de México con dirección a la ciudad de Oaxaca.

El domingo 03 de junio nuevamente lo llamé y la llamada no entró nuevamente, me decía que su celular estaba fuera del área de servicio.

Ante esta situación nuestra angustia creció y la preocupación también por lo que empiezo a indagar en los periódicos para informarme sobre la situación de allá, pues por la televisión había visto que la situación en Oaxaca estaba muy dura. Y Es entonces cuando por medio del periódico La Jornada me entero de la detención – desaparición de mi papá el día lunes 4 de junio a través de La Jornada. Cuando leí la noticia, acudo a Internet para saber más sobre lo que estaba pasando y veo entonces con mayor información que el Partido Democrático Popular Revolucionario, Ejercito Popular Revolucionario, lo reconocía como su integrante. En ese momento todo fue turbio y confuso para mi familia y para mi, pues nos angustiamos demasiado cuando vimos que este grupo lo reivindicaba y reconocía como uno de sus miembros, junto con otras dos personas, lo cual nos lleno de miedo, quedándonos como en estado de shock, sin saber que hacer. En ese momento me preocupe mucho por mi mamá ya que esta mal de salud, padece de hipertensión y presentó crisis nerviosas, entre otras cosas. Por lo que me ocupe en ese momento de ella y me bloqueé sobre el asunto de mi padre. Pues tampoco sabia a donde buscar ni a donde dirigirme.

El día jueves 07 de junio me comunico con la familia en Oaxaca para preguntarles si sabían algo, diciéndome que mi abuelita lo esperaba para el 28 de mayo, que había preparado comida y que él no llegó por lo que se preocuparon y que un tío escuchó su nombre en el radio y fue cuando empezaron a buscar en el periódico y vieron que estaba como desaparecido. Desde entonces nuestra desesperación por saber de él aumentó día con día, por lo que hemos buscado por todos los medio posibles saber sobre su estado recurriendo a la lectura de la prensa escrita y de Internet para encontrar apoyo en las organizaciones de Derechos Humanos que tratan temas de desaparición.

Loosely translated, her father left to visit his mother in Oaxaca. He told his family he would return the following Wednesday. The began to worry when he did not call to let them know he made it to his mother’s house. His daughter tried calling his cell phone, but did not have any luck. On June 7, the day we was to return, he never showed up, which was very unusual since he is very punctual. When his daughter called her grandmother, she told her, he never made it to her house. That is when the family began to fear the worse. It was not until his daughter read the paper that he was kidnapped.

The only information I can find about Raymundo Rivera Bravo is that is believed he is a member of the EPR, according to Rafael García Ramos. However, what is known, back in June, the non-governmental Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (LIMEDDHH) made an urgent request to the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) to intervene on behalf of Raymundo Rivera Bravo y Edmundo Reyes Amaya.

La Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Limeddh), solicitó de manera urgente a la Organización Mundial contra la Tortura cuyas siglas son (OMCT), su intervención sobre la detención e incomunicación, presunta desaparición y riesgo de tortura contra los señores Raymundo Rivera Bravo y Edmundo Reyes Amaya, militantes del Partido Democrático Popular Revolucionario (PDPR) en hechos ocurridos en la ciudad de Oaxaca.

— Denuncia la Limeddh posible tortura a dos integrantes del PDPR, Olor a mi tierra, June 12, 2007

OMCT is considered to be the “main coalition of international non-governmental organizations (NGO) fighting against torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” In a released appeal denouncing the “harassment against members of the Committee Cerezo,” OMCT believes that the two incidents are related. Alejandro Cerezo Contreras, a member of the human rights organization Comité Cerezo, had been receiving a series of death treats that not only threatening to end his life but also members of his family as well. An email was sent to Comité Cerezo on June 26 which not only contained threats to the lives of the Contreras family, but it also made a reference about people being detained in La Palma penitentiary.

Asi son las cosas de la vida otra vez en pedos la family, ni modos los tenemos bien cercas a ustedes tres, a los de la palma y a tu querida familia, y a tu tiito cara de culito y a su amiguito habladorcito que no para y el otro tambièn habla y habla, pero a lo mejor ya no hablan ya se quedan calladitos o ya les cargo la verga. Solo diosito sabe, y tambien marxito y leninito culito.

OMCT thinks that the “los palma” was in reference to Raymundo Rivera Bravo and Edmundo Reyes Amaya who are believed to held there. OMCT feels that the Mexican government is behind Alejandro Cerezo harassment because on June 20, Alejandro Cerezo received a voice message on a government issued cell phone. The Interior Ministry has issued Alejandro Cerezo with a cell phone along with a private number after the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights made a request in behalf of Alejandro Cerezo to the Mexican government to provide him and his family protection back in October 2006. The message was a recorded conversation between Alejandro Cerezo and his sister Emiliana and to this day, they still do not know how the conversation was recorded.

Jorge Lofredo, director of the Center for the Documentation of Armed Movements (Cedema) and an authority on Mexican guerillas - website that originally post the communique - argues that events that occurred prior to the attacks by the EPR is part of a camplaign led by the Mexican government so that the EPR can come out of hiding. On July 4, Lofredo stated that the disappearance of Raymundo Rivera Bravo and Edmundo Reyes Amaya who are also member of the EPR in Oaxaca, the death threats Cerezo received – who is rumored to be the son of the supposed leader of the guerrilla group - and the attack in Oaxaca that occurred last year are a part of the campaign.

Los recientes desaparecidos de Oaxaca, se asegura en la más reciente amenaza, tendrían vínculos familiares con la dirigencia del EPR, lo que llevaría a la conclusión de que se trataría, nuevamente, de que el objetivo de mantener en calidad de desaparecidos a Raymundo Rivera Bravo o Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez y Edmundo Reyes Amaya tiene por objetivo obligar a actuar a la dirigencia del EPR, que estaría integrada según el CISEN y las distintas corporaciones de seguridad por el padre de los hermanos Cerezo Contreras. Ello desembocaría, nuevamente, en la estrategia de “presos por consigna”, o como ha dado en llamar el propio Comité Cerezo, “rehenes del Estado Mexicano”.

Jorge Lofredo, CEDEMA.org, July 4, 2007

While it is easy to assume that the recent attack could be manufactured “terrorist” acts as Richard, from The Mex Files, points out, this might not be the case this time around. For example, if we were to take the word of the mainstream media, one might thing this was planned by al Qaeda. Nezua provided insight on how the mainstream media is trying to spin this story as being part of an al Qaeda plot. As Nez pointed out, it is hard to know what is exactly is going on, especially when the mainstream media is dedicating itself to the service of lies and not the truth.

It is clear that those who are paying the media for this campaign of lies are not going out to the streets or the factories or the campos, nor the mountains where the people are forced to live under a systematic policy of State Terrorism implemented by Felipe Calderón. It was one year ago, millions of citizens took the streets to protest the technical coup d’etat. However, and their voices were silenced through the mainstream media and subjugated bureaucrats, in payment of the privileges they have been granted. The ballot recount (voto por voto) demanded by a huge segment of society resulted in the instrumentation of the so called “lawful state” which is sold to the public by marketing campaigns full of distortions and slander in favor of the oligarchy.

As long as the government continues to criminalize any type of social movement in favor of big business, the problems underlying the struggle will never be solved.

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Tags: EPR, Felipe Calderón, Mexico, news media, Oaxaca, PEMEX |  Print This Post |
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