Mexican Leftist Guerrillas Stage Attacks In Nine Cities At Least 13 People Killed, 28 Hurt, But Tourists Spared

Camouflaged fighters from a shadowy leftist group attacked troops and police in this Pacific resort and eight other cities in the most widespread wave of guerrilla attacks in decades in Mexico.

At least 13 people died Thursday in the raids.

Nine people were killed here, but the hotel area, widely frequented by U.S. tourists, was spared.

Nearly 200 miles away, in the Oaxaca community of Tlaxiaco, blood stained the halls of City Hall and bullet holes pocked the doors and nearby trees.

The coordinated raids on a dozen federal targets occurred in four states - Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas and Mexico - on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. At least 28 people were wounded.

Interior Undersecretary Arturo Nunez said the government would “prosecute the law with all rigor.”

The attacks appeared aimed at defying political leaders, who earlier had suggested that the Popular Revolutionary Army, known by its Spanish initials EPR, was a barely significant “pantomime” mounted by leftist dissidents or criminals.

The group has called for a new constitution and broad economic changes. It outlined those goals in a meeting with journalists, including two from The Associated Press, in central Mexico this month.

No tourists were among the casualties and some Americans appeared calm Thursday despite the uproar.

“We’re from New York and this is no big deal,” said Sue Covino. “I guess if 10 tourists were killed, we might be a little nervous.”

The violence comes with Mexico struggling to overcome its worst recession since the 1930s.

The Mexican stock market was off by more than 2.2 percent when it closed Thursday, and the peso slid to 7.537 per dollar from 7.444 a day earlier.

Oaxaca state Gov. Diodoro Carrasco said some 80 uniformed fighters attacked the town plaza, the federal prosecutor’s office, federal police and a marine base in La Crucecita on the edge of Huatulco. But no violence was reported in the hotel zone.

Two city policemen, three sailors, two civilians and two attackers were killed. None of the attackers was captured.

Two patients injured in the shooting were reported in critical condition at a government hospital.

“It was something very ugly, I don’t have the words to tell you. You’re not going to exaggerate what happened, are you? Because we live on tourism here,” said Candelaria Rivera, a resident of the working-class neighborhood.

Esmeralda Avalos Enriquez, 29, a restaurant owner waiting in the hospital for word on a friend’s condition, said she saw the masked attackers drive through the streets shouting: “We don’t have anything against the people, but against the government.”

Roadblocks erected Thursday morning were removed later in the day, but military patrols were heavy.

In Tlaxiaco, a farming town of about 3,000, some 60 masked fighters attacked about 10 p.m. Wednesday, leaving three dead, including two policemen, said police Cmdr. Juan Feliciano Arango Dias.

“Long Live the EPR! With the Popular Struggle It Will Triumph!” said slogans painted on houses.

The attackers left behind leaflets calling for the overthrow of the government.