Three buildings were bombed in Mexico City yesterday:
OAXACA CITY, Mexico – Three bomb blasts in Mexico City early yesterday sparked new concerns that the political and social unrest wracking Oaxaca is spreading across the country.
As police sifted through the rubble at the Federal Electoral Tribunal, a branch of Canada’s Scotiabank and the headquarters of the former ruling party, political analysts said Mexico faces challenges to its institutions that threaten the country’s fragile democracy. […]
The homemade bombs detonated nearly simultaneously after midnight following two anonymous calls to emergency officials. No one was injured.
Five allegedly leftist groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks. It appears that only buildings were targeted, not people. The pre-explosion warnings to officials is a sign that the groups responsible for these attacks did not intend to target the local population, but instead wished to send a message to the corporate and political interests which they hold responsible for the recent election fraud in Mexico.
For example the Scotiabank may have been targeted because of its past dealings with the party of winning Presidential candidate, Felipe Calderon. The PRI, the former ruling party in Mexico, was likely targeted for their support of the Electoral Tribunal which certified Calderon’s narrow victory over the protests of opposition candidate Lopez Obrador and his followers:
The PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before Fox’s 2000 triumph, backed the electoral tribunal when it confirmed Calderon’s victory by less than 1 percentage point over leftist Democratic Revolution Party candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Lopez Obrador cried fraud and launched a massive protest that clogged the capital for more than a month to demand a recount, which the court refused to order.
Whether the five leftist groups who purportedly claimed responsibility for the bombings are actually responsible for the attacks is an open question. Mexican offcials are also blaming APPO, the group responsible for the protests in Oaxaca, though that group’s leader denies any involvement:
Since the federal police seized control of the Oaxacan capital, there have been several violent confrontations between police and members of the APPO. “It is inevitable that people link these explosions with what is happening in Oaxaca,” political analyst Soledad Loeaza said. “There has been a clear pattern of violence by the APPO throughout the conflict.”
Flavio Sosa, leader of the APPO, denied his group was involved in the bombings. “Our fight is popular, peaceful,” he said in a nationally televised interview yesterday morning. “We do not . . . take responsibility for other kinds of actions.”
I’m not surprised this happened in Mexico following Calderon’s tainted victory this year. People there no how to recognize a stolen election when they see one. They endured 71 years of one party rule by the PRI after all. The only question I have is whether the violence will escalate in the coming weeks and months.
