Mexican state-owned oil giant Pemex said six explosions caused by sabotage hit its pipeline network early Monday in the state of Veracruz, but no injuries were reported.
Pemex said the blasts forced it to evacuate several communities in the Gulf state, which is home to a large number of oil facilities.
The explosions caused at least four fires that Pemex said were brought under control by its employees, working with state and local emergency services personnel.
More than 16,250 people have been evacuated from five communities near the targeted pipelines, the oil company said.
Pemex said the pipeline attacks, which no group has claimed responsibility for, oc- curred in La Antigua, Omealca, Minatitlan and Actopan, where the company detected an “unusual loss of pressure at six different spots.”
One explosion damaged a valve on the Cactus-San Fernando gas pipeline in La Antigua, where officials evacuated more than 6,000 people. Another valve on the same pipeline was hit by a blast near the ActopanRiver.
The Zempoala-Santa gas pipeline was affected by an explosion near the town of Delicias, while three blasts at different spots hit the Minatitlan-MexicoCity pipeline.
The highways linking Xalapa to the port of Veracruz, Cordoba to Mexico City and Minatitlan to the port of Coatzacoalcos have been temporarily closed.
The People's Revolutionary Army, or EPR, guerrilla group claimed responsibility for several pipeline bombings earlier in the summer, saying the attacks, which did not cause any injuries, were “acts of self-defense.”
The guerrilla group said the pipeline bombings and other attacks were part of a national campaign to compel authorities to produce alive several “disappeared detainees” and to free all other “political prisoners.”
For some time, the EPR has been demanding the safe return of Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez, who have not been seen since their May 25 arrests in Oaxaca, where the guerrilla group originated in the mid-1990s.
The small rebel army accused the Mexican government of running secret prisons on army bases and of having reopened Military Camp No. 1, a large installation in the capital, to serve “as the principal dungeon to disappear, torture and murder social activists with impunity.”
On July 5, explosions forced the shutdown of pipelines in Guanajuato, while July 10 saw blasts at conduits in nearby Queretaro state, as well as a statement from the EPR claiming responsibility for all eight explosions.
Officials confirmed that the blasts were indeed caused by bombs, but they said they could not confirm whether the EPR was behind the attacks.
The second round of attacks disabled a network serving the heavily industrialized region known as El Bajio, encompassing parts of the states of Queretaro, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes and Jalisco.
Representatives of the business community said more than 1,000 firms were forced to suspend operations and that total losses amounted to roughly $9 million a day until state oil monopoly Pemex restored service July 13.
The EPR, which has traditionally operated only in southern Mexico, came to prominence with a June 1996 attack on police in the Oaxaca seaside town of Huatulco, a clash that left 13 rebels, cops and civilians dead, according to officials.
The EPR defines its cause as commemorating and denouncing a June 1995 massacre of 17 Indian peasants in the town of Aguas Blancas, Guerrero.
Since the 1996 attack, the EPR has limited itself to conducting “propaganda actions,” like setting off small bombs outside bank branches.
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