Rebels Say They're Behind Pipeline Blasts in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, July 11 -- A series of pipeline explosions sharply reduced gas supplies in central Mexico and forced the country's largest beer producer, as well as foreign-owned companies, to temporarily close factories or cut back production Wednesday.

A rebel group, the People's Revolutionary Army, has asserted responsibility for the explosions at a key pipeline owned by Mexico's national oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, in the state of Guanajuato last week and in the state of Queretaro on Tuesday. The group is demanding the release of two of its members, who it says were unfairly imprisoned during last year's violent teacher protests in Oaxaca.

In a statement posted on the Internet, the rebels said they were waging "a prolonged people's war" and "a campaign of harassment against the interests of the oligarchy and the government." Known by its Spanish initials, EPR, the group has pledged to protect the rights of indigenous people and the poor, and was responsible for attacks on government installations in 1996 that left 19 people dead. But it has barely been heard from in recent years.

The two EPR members named as political prisoners in the group's statement are Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Raymundo Rivera Bravo. The Mexican attorney general's office said Wednesday that neither man is in custody.

President Felipe Calderón condemned the explosions during a speech Wednesday in a Mexico City suburb, saying they were an attempt "to destroy what we have all built together." But leaders of the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, questioned whether EPR was responsible, and suggested in a statement that the Mexican government may have blown up its own pipelines "to distract people from the grave problems that afflict the country."

Authorities have not said what caused the explosions, each of which took place about 1 p.m. The damage to the pipelines is not expected to have long-term effects on Mexico's economy or gas supply because the lines can be repaired easily. Calderón did, however, dispatch Mexican army units to guard refineries, where attacks could have long-lasting effects. In Mexico City, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard ordered increased security at bank branches in hopes of protecting possible targets of attack.

"These attacks have given us the unpleasant surprise that our installations are vulnerable," Sen. Dulce María Sauri of the Institutional Revolutionary Party said in an interview Wednesday.

Like many of her fellow legislators, Sauri urged the public not to jump to conclusions before a thorough investigation is completed. She said the Calderón administration appeared unprepared to deal with the public reaction to the attacks, a theme echoed by PRD leaders who complained that the government had said little about the explosions until the People's Revolutionary Army asserted responsibility Tuesday.

Factory managers were tallying their losses Wednesday. The glass company Vitro announced that the forced shutdowns of its plants in Queretaro and Guadalajara were costing $800,000 a day. Mexico's beer behemoth, Grupo Modelo S.A., maker of Corona beer, as well as Hershey and Nissan were among the companies affected by the shortages.

The Mexican Catholic Church warned that "violence gives rise to more violence."

"The seed of terrorism," the church said in a statement, "leads to the harvests of the fruits of a new terrorism."