15 February 2008

Explosions Rock Mexico City

A pair of explosions in Mexico City this afternoon, which AP suggests are drug related.

"There were two explosions. It was a device that set off two explosions," Police chief Joel Ortega told Mexican radio.

Images broadcast on live television showed damaged cars and dozens of riot-gear-laden police officers crowding into the area, as a woman who appeared to be slightly injured was helped into a sitting position on the sidewalk.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed the army in a year-old battle with Mexico's powerful drug cartels. Police have made several busts in the capital and arrested suspected drug gang members found with large arsenals of weapons.

Emphasis mine. The article goes on to state:

It's not the first time the area has been hit with blasts. Mexico was hit last year by a series of nonfatal bomb attacks by a left-wing guerrilla group on oil installations.

To which I have to observe that there's a pretty big difference, as I see it, between guerrilla groups sabotaging oil delivery pipelines--without casualties--and drug cartels terrorizing popular tourism centers in a tit-for-tat with the federal government that resulted in 1 death and at least 1 serious injury.