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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2007 
Masked Rebels Attack Mexican Jail
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
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 |  | There has been some discontent among civic and farm groups over the building of this jail.
- Government statement |  | | Mexico City - Masked assailants - identified by some on Sunday as leftist rebels - attacked a jail under construction in southern Mexico, firing shots and threatening watchmen, but causing no injuries.
The Chiapas state government described the attackers as "vandals" in a statement late Saturday, several hours after the attack.
But local media published photos on Sunday showing the assailants had spray-painted the jail's walls with the letters EPR - the Spanish initials of the People's Revolutionary Army, a small rebel group that claimed responsibility for recent bombings of gas pipelines in central Mexico.
"Three watchmen were threatened by subjects dressed in black who tried to cover their faces," the government statement said. "The vandals fired a number of shots into the air and at the construction site."
There were apparently no inmates yet at the facility in the city of Chiapa de Corzo. The statement noted that there has been "some discontent among civic and farm groups over the building of this jail."
The Chiapas newspaper Cuarto Poder, however, described the incident as an apparent propaganda action by the EPR.
"Presumed members of the People's Revolutionary Army shot up a jail being built in Chiapa de Corzo, spray-painting demands for the freedom of political prisoners," the newspaper reported.
It quoted the slogans as saying, "Freedom for political prisoners," "Long live the EPR," and "They took them away alive, and we want them back alive."
Investigations have confirmed the July pipeline explosions were deliberately triggered, but have not yet confirmed that the rebel group was responsible.
The EPR staged several attacks in southern Mexico in the 1990s, but had been inactive in recent years. |
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