Investor's Business Daily, September 10th, 2007
Terrorism: Another six blasts at Mexico's energy infrastructure Sunday drove world natural gas prices higher. But the probable real intention was to destabilize Mexico by destroying its economy. Who benefits here?
Thus far, no one has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attack in Veracruz that blew up six natural gas pipelines, cut off critical energy to Mexico's two biggest and most industrialized cities, and forced the evacuation of 12,000 residents.
The direct perpetrators are probably the Popular Revolutionary Army, or EPR, a newly re-formed terror group that was active two decades ago.
Recrudescing out of seemingly nowhere, it struck two gas pipelines in July in central Mexico and in a statement called that the beginning of a "national campaign of harassment against the interests of the oligarchy and this illegitimate government."
The shadowy group isn't bluffing. In a mere two months, it blew up a Sears building in Oaxaca, tried to blow up a bank, called in three bomb threats to the tallest building in Latin America to force the evacuation of 11,000 people, and left a car bomb in the garage to show their intents. Sunday's pipeline attack is their worst act to date, and shows far more calculated planning and resources.
"Those who attack the security of the Mexican people under any pretext are attacking Mexico and democracy," said Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, recognizing the emerging picture.
The implications are serious because Mexico has become a far more modern economy in the past decade and has far more to lose.
For one, it's clear the strategy was to hit the domestic economy. A gas pipeline attack cuts off natural gas to Mexico's industry more directly than it affects broader energy prices. By this attack, tens of thousands of businesses were affected.
It's also significant that even though Mexico is primarily an oil producer and has unguarded pipelines for all its energy, this shadowy group has only targeted natural gas pipelines.
It may be because virtually all of Mexico's natural gas production is for domestic consumption only, so the strike was intended for the home economy.
Not only that, Mexico is a big importer of natural gas, from the U.S. As Mexico's economy has grown over the last decade, its industry has become far more dependent on this energy source.
Natural gas must be transferred by pipeline, so an attack on a gas line is more disruptive than an attack on an oil pipeline, because the latter commodity can be transported by other means.
All of this adds up to a specific attack on Mexico's economy at one of its most vulnerable energy points. Whoever did this thought it through and has a disturbingly malevolent strategy for crippling Mexico. It may mean that more than just the leftist EPR is behind this. It could mean sponsorship by an outside Marxist government.
Calderon recently has been making nice with the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela, possibly to appease potential predators. If they're behind this, it shows how futile that is.
But if those countries had any role, Calderon needs to know and face it squarely, or he's going to be fighting a long war he could lose. He needs to know this enemy, because someone out there wants Mexico's economy dead.
