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Bomb Explodes in Mexico City


By JOHN LYONS
February 15, 2008 6:21 p.m.

MEXICO CITY -- One man died and others were injured when a bomb exploded near the main Mexico City police station, an unsettling reminder of escalating violence in a country fighting a two-pronged struggle against an elusive left-wing rebel group on one hand, and heavily armed drugs gangs on the other.

The detonation of the bombs, which Mexico City Police Chief Joel Ortega described as homemade, appears to have been accidental. The dead man, identified as 29-year-old Javier Gonzalez Lopez, was likely holding the bomb in hands when it detonated in two blasts along a leafy side street near the police station, Mr. Ortega said. Police investigators are trying to determine whether Mr. Gonzalez was knowingly transporting the bomb, or whether he accidentally set off the device after chancing upon it. Police are hoping to question a 22-year-old woman who was injured in the blast and may be an associate of Mr. Lopez.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bomb. Security analysts said that the apparent homemade nature of the bomb suggest that it was likely the work of a shadowy leftist group, the Army of the Popular Revolution, known as the EPR in Spanish. The EPR has long favored bombings as its chief method for advancing its radical ideology. The EPR has traditionally targeted infrastructure such as gas pipelines. The group set off several bombs last year, and has threatened more.

At the same time, the proximity to the Mexico City police station could suggest the work of powerful drugs gangs. President Felipe Calderon has deployed 25,000 troops across the country in a frontal, and often extremely violent, assault on the drugs trade.

The bomb blew glass out of car windows and rattled buildings along the central Reforma Avenue nearby.