Emergency.Blog

Why were Mexican students at rebel camp in Ecuador?

Friday, March 7, 2008

Why were Mexican students at rebel camp in Ecuador?

By Franco Ordonez, McClatchy Newspapers

MEXICO CITY, MX: At least five Mexican nationals were present at a rebel camp where a top insurgent commander was killed last weekend in Ecuador, leaving Mexicans to speculate on why they were there.

Experts say that it's the first time Mexican nationals have been known to die alongside members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Latin America's oldest guerrilla group.

Their presence added to questions of a possible link between FARC and a spate of pipeline bombings in Mexico last year that cut off fuel supplies to major industrial operations, including a Volkswagen factory. Mexican police officials noted then that the bombings, claimed by the Popular Revolutionary Army, or EPR, differed radically from the group's previous targets of ATM machines and other "nuisance bombings."

The police said then that the pipeline bombings ? which are a common FARC tactic in Colombia ? were so sophisticated that whoever did them may have received special training.

Also present in the Ecuador camp were an unknown number of Chileans.

Ecuador's security minister, Gustavo Larrea, said Friday that as many as four Mexicans were killed in the March 1 attack. A fifth Mexican, 26-year-old Lucia Morett, survived.

The Mexicans and Chileans apparently were planning to speak before a FARC meeting when they were killed. Journalists given a tour of the camp organized by the Ecuador government Thursday were shown a classroom area and what appeared to be an agenda for the meeting.

Mexican news outlets identified dead as Juan Gonzalez del Castillo, Natalia Velasquez, Fernando Franco Delgado, and Soren Ulises Aviles Angeles. The National Autonomous University of Mexico said Morett, Velasquez, Delgado and Gonzalez del Castillo were students there. The newspaper El Universal said Aviles Angeles was a student at National Polytechnic Institute.

Both Morett and Gonzalez del Castillo were members of a radical student group that supported the FARC, according to the group's Web site...

-- Source/continues at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/29777.html

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Additional References:

"SECURITY PROBLEMS IN LATIN," ENN Daily Report, 08/24/96 - Vol. 2, No. 237, can be found at: http://www.emergency.com/ltn-scty.htm

"LATIN AMERICAN GUERRILLA GROUPS COME AND GO," Tuesday, June 24, 1997 Vol. 3 - 175, can be found at: http://www.emergency.com/latngurl.htm

"Terrorism - Latin America, Counter-Terrorism Archive," can be found at: http://www.emergency.com/cntrterr.htm#Question-8

"Colombia Advisory Sheet - HotSpot Report," can be found at:http://www.emergency.com/colbwarn.htm