Mexico becoming one of world’s more dangerous countries

…EPR’s coordinated bombings of natural gas pipelines, first in July and then in September, have exposed government intelligence failures and the vulnerability of the petroleum infrastructure in Mexico, the second largest oil exporter to the United States.

“The reality is the government has been pursuing the top EPR leaders for at least five years, and they haven’t been able to catch them,” said Mexican political commentator Raymundo Riva Palacio.


The attacks have been unexpectedly sophisticated. The September blasts caused millions of dollars in economic losses when the state-owned oil company, Pemex, had to cut off gas supplies to thousands of businesses, including major multi-national companies such as Grupo Modelo, the makers of Corona beer, and Vitro, the largest glassmaker in the world.

“These people that are placing these devices know something about the flow of the oil and gas,” said one American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. “They didn’t just place it randomly in the middle of the valve system.”

McClatchy Newspapers