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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2005 
Mayor Plays Down Terror Threat in Mexico City
 John Rice - Associated Press
| | As the government enacts new security measures in reaction to terror attacks in London, the mayor of Mexico City says there is little threat of similar acts occurring in Mexico. |
A day after federal officials warned that Mexico was vulnerable to a terrorist attack, Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday dismissed such fears and said his city was taking no special precautions.
"I don't think that there would be an act of terrorism in our city, first because we are pacifists and second because we have no participation in international conflicts," said the mayor, who is the leading contender for the 2006 presidential election, according to polls.
López Obrador was referring to the idea that London, Madrid and New York had suffered terrorist attacks because of attackers' anger at their governments' activities in the Middle East.
It directly contradicted a statement Thursday by President Vicente Fox, who said Mexico's absence of terror attacks so far "does not exclude us from the possibility of having it." His interior secretary, Carlos Abascal, announced tightened security around diplomatic missions, particularly those of nations on the front lines of the war on terror.
"Plan Sentinel" also includes stepped-up security at airports and seaports, hydroelectric dams and key telecommunications and oil industry installations and increased efforts to chase down smugglers who move people across the U.S. border.
Abascal said the action arose from the U.S. declaration of an orange alert against terrorism following the series of bombing in London that killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds.
He said it was a way "to prevent any terrorist act that could originate from our territory." Mexico had also stepped up security following the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on New York.
López Obrador, however, said "there is nothing special" about new security measures. "We have a permanent program for security." On Thursday, the mayor had praised Fox for holding to Mexico's principles of avoiding foreign intervention. He repeated that on Friday: "The policy of not relying on confrontation, on violence and of always seeking the peaceful solution to controversies is the most recommendable in terms of foreign policy," said López Obrador, who is due to step down as mayor at the end of the month to campaign for the presidency.
The mayor added that Mexico's avoidance of military action abroad means "more security in the interior.
"If we participate in conflicts of an international character, we are vulnerable, we have risks, so it is better ... to stay on the sideline of those armed conflicts." |
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