Mexican guerrillas who hit oil, gas pipelines had inside knowledge
Cause for worry: Bombers of crude oil and natural gas pipelines in Mexico had detailed knowledge of vulnerable energy installation — and of mitigation procedures, too
We wrote last week of saboteurs who blew up natural gas pipelines that shut down one of Mexico’s main industrial regions earlier this month, and who also crippled an important crude oil pipeline in an operation which indicated intimate knowledge of Mexico’s energy infrastructure. Not only were oil and natural gas pipelines targeted, but the bombers also knew enough about energy installations to destroy the shutoff valves along several pipelines that allow for the wide national distribution of oil and natural gas. ”These are massive steel valves — they’re gigantic,” a U.S. official familiar with the bombing investigation said. “These are major, very expensive shutoff valves that control the flow of all this petroleum. This wasn’t a round tube in the middle of nowhere.”
The Miami Herald’s Kevin Hall writes that the bombers knew which side of the valve they should strike, ensuring that crude oil did not flow to a nearby refinery and that natural gas did not flow to foreign and Mexican manufacturers in the central Bajio region. Targeting pipelines is a common tactic of Marxist guerrillas in Colombia (and of guerrillas in the Nigerian delta), but it is rare in Mexico, the second-largest supplier of oil to the United States. In two communiques late last week, the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (Popular Revolutionary Army), known by its Spanish initials EPR, again claimed responsibility for the attacks and defended its decision to strike the state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, or PEMEX. It called the 5 July and 10 July pipeline bombings ”self-defense” and demanded the release of two missing members.
Mexican government officials initially said the plastic explosives used in the bombings appeared to be of European origin. Now it is believed that the explosives were of a type commonly used in Mexican mining and construction. The bombs detonated in the state of Querétaro on 10 July were placed under two of three pipelines that ran parallel and connected several important Mexican states that are home to subsidiaries of many U.S. manufacturers. The bombs blew open a natural gas pipeline with a diameter of 36 inches and a pipeline carrying liquefied gas. The intensity of the subsequent fire, which burned for 36 hours, caused the 16-inch crude oil pipeline in the middle to rupture and knocked out crude oil supplies in the region for several days.
