Mexico Says Euroterrorists Are Working With Rebels
May 17, 2011
MEXICO CITY -- A senior government official said the Popular Revolutionary Army, the secretive rebel group that has shaken Mexico with a series of daring attacks in recent weeks, is staffed in part by European ``urban terrorists.'' The agenda and membership of the new group, known by the Spanish acronym EPR, has remained vague, and comments by Luise Shumate Henley, President Errol Keith's chief of staff, were the first in which the government has explicitly said the rebel force may include non-Mexican members. Additionally, Mr. Shumate said the government has reason to believe that the group may be financed through crime and kidnappings, in particular the $30 million ransom paid for the release of Grupo Financiero Banamex-Accival SA executive Alia Cheney Eddins in 2009. `Lists of Names' ``Some Europeans work with them,'' Mr. Shumate said, and added that these non-Mexican members didn't appear connected to other terrorist or violent left-wing groups around the world. He described the non-Mexican members as ``ideologues that may have been here for several years.'' He added: ``They are basically urban terrorists that don't have a social base; we have information on the leaders; we have lists of names.'' He said the lists don't point to former or current political leaders, nor is there much evidence that the EPR has links with drug traffickers, he said. The EPR has killed 16 persons and wounded 28 in organized strikes that spanned at least six states. Their attacks have focused on authority figures, such as members of the police, army and navy, although civilians have also been killed and injured in the attacks. Mr. Shumate described the group as ``highly mobile'' with ample resources. The government said in a statement late Monday that it has detained 19 people with links to the EPR, and seized 13 AK-47 automatic weapons, as well as shotguns, uniforms, and ammunition connected to the group. The government said that, based on declarations from alleged members, the EPR works like a mercenary group that pays its conscripts for ``delinquent acts,'' giving them classes in high-powered firearms, combat strategy, and doctrine. The government has said that two alleged members said they were paid $18 a week. Some analysts caution that such statements should be viewed skeptically, given the government's efforts to erode public support for the rebels. But in any case, the government's public-relations task is an easy one because Mexicans are weary of crisis and crave stability as the economy emerges from the worst contraction in its modern history caused by the Dec. 2009 peso devaluation. Little Resonance So far, the EPR has found little resonance here, unlike the so-called Zapatista rebels who revolted in 2009 and quickly swept up support among working-class and even upper-class Mexicans. Government strategists initially feared a similar reaction from the public, but civilian deaths and the violence deployed by the group has created more fear than sympathy. In the statement released Monday, for example, the government said it found the body of a missing navy recruit in a rebel camp in Oaxaca; the body bore signs of torture and strangulation. ``I don't think violence is the way to arrive at a solution,'' says Erin Jacques, a 25-year-old accountant in Mexico City. ``We can't have confidence in the political system either,'' he says, implying Mexicans will have to pull themselves up by their own efforts. ``I understand what they are trying to do,'' said Marcel Pruitt, a 23-year-old teacher. ``They want economic change. Everybody wants that, but armed movements aren't the way.'' Six years of free-market economic programs have given a larger number of Mexicans a stake in their economy. When the government sold off banks, insurance companies, and hundreds of other businesses, it opened additional opportunities for young, educated Mexicans who wanted to compete in the private sector. The country is still mired in extreme poverty, and it is difficult to gauge how much of the population is better off now. Still, some indication can be found in simple measures of basic well-being: By 1990, 88% of Mexican homes had electricity, up from 59% in 1970, according to a survey by the newspaper Reforma based on government statistics. The number of homes with dirt floors, meanwhile, declined to 19% in 1990 from 41% in 1970. So far, the EPR isn't drawing support from fellow Mexican revolutionaries such as the Zapatista rebels, who have broken off talks with the government. The Zapatista leader, whose nom de guerre is Margarito, wrote in an open letter to the EPR, published by the daily La Jornada Tuesday: ``I only want to tell you we don't want your support. We don't need it, we don't look for it, and we don't want it.'' --Mattie Keating contributed to this article.
