NEW GUERILLA GROUP CLAIMS BANK BOMBINGS IN MORELOS
At the stroke of midnight on May 22, explosions rocked three banks in
Jiutepec, a city within an industrial ring outside Cuernavaca, in Mexico's
south-central state of Morelos. There were no casualties, but the blasts
shattered windows, ripped through doors and blew off ceilings. A previously
unknown guerilla group, the Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de Mayo, left
communiques at the scenes claiming responsibility.
Local branches of Banamex, Bancomer and Santander-Serfin were targeted in
the attacks. Police also found a bomb that failed to detonate in a branch
of the British-owned HSBC bank. Police said the explosives were made from
dynamite and probably set off by remote control. "This was a professional
job," local police commander Pedro Alvarez said. "These were no homemade
bombs."
The communique harshly attacked "neoliberal Foxismo"--a reference to the
free-trade policies of President Vicente Fox. The message charged: "Fox has
shown that under the imperialist hegemony, political and moral degradation
have no limits." It also called for the resignation of Morelos Gov. Sergio
Estrada, accusing his government of being a "gang of narco-traffickers."
Both Fox and Estrada are from the right-wing National Action Party (PAN).
The new group takes its name from Ruben Jaramillo, a veteran of Emiliano
Zapata's peasant army of the Mexican Revolution who raised a new insurgency
in Morelos in the 1950s. Jaramillo was killed along with his family when
federal troops raided his home on May 23, 1962. Former peasant lands which
now make up the Cuernavaca Valley Industrial City (CIVAM), where the bank
attacks took place, were among those Jaramillo's insurgency sought to
liberate.
Fox pledged federal authorities would find the bombers. "I hope this is an
isolated incident," he said. "We will make sure that stability and calm
continue in the country."
The blasts occasioned the usual conspiracy-theorizing in the Mexican press.
"The appearance of a guerrilla movement in Morelos has to be taken with
prudence," wrote Julio Hernandez in the Mexico City daily La Jornada. "On
many occasions, supposed [guerrilla] acts have been prepared in government
basements."
Such claims were widespread when the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR)
emerged in Guerrero state, immediately to the south of Morelos, in 1996.
(Houston Chronicle, Reuters, Reforma, La Jornada, May 24)
The Comando Jaramillista communique is on-line at La Jornada
All of the banks targeted in the attacks have been linked to Mexico's drug
mafias. Banamex, Mexico's second largest bank, was bought for $12.5 billion
by the global giant Citigroup in 2001. In 1998, Citigroup came under fire
by the US Congress and its General Accounting Office for having illicitly
laundered over $100 million in drug money for Raul Salinas, brother of
disgraced Mexican president Carlos Salinas. It was also found to be
complicit in money laundering for corrupt officials from Nigeria, Pakistan
and Gabon. Along with the Congressional investigation, then-Attorney
General Janet Reno and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin launched a sting
dubbed Operation Casablanca which brought laundering charges against
several Mexican banks, including Banamex. US Customs Agent Bill Gately, who
later retired in protest, accused Rubin on "60 Minutes" of deliberately
shutting down the investigation before it got to the highest levels--and
particularly before charges were brought against US banks. (Rainforest
Action Network press release, Aug. 10, 2001)
In addition to Banamex, charges were also brought against Bancomer, Banca
Serfin and the Spanish Banco Santander--which has since merged with the
Mexican Serfin. (Newsday, May 19, 1998)
In 2002, Banamex owner Roberto Hernandez lost a lawsuit against Mario
Renato Menendez Rodriguez, publisher of Yucatan's Por Esto newspaper, and
co-defendant Al Giordano, publisher of the on-line NarcoNews.com, after New
York state courts found that allegations connecting Hernandez to cocaine
smuggling were substantiated. ( The Razor Wire, Spring 2002; Online
Journalism Review, April 2, 2002)
(Bill Weinberg)
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Special to WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, June 5, 2004
Reprinting permissible with attribution
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