Atoyac, Mexico (AP - May 28, 1997) Three soldiers and two rebels were killed during gun battles in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, and a small military airplane apparently crashed during the fighting, witnesses and officials said Wednesday.
The fighting broke out when some two dozen armed men ambushed a military anti-drug patrol near Atoyac, 35 miles west of Acapulco, late Tuesday, the military said.
The men are suspected of belonging to the Popular Revolutionary Army, a shadowy rebel group that made its first appearance in June 1996.
The army has not confirmed the loss of the aircraft, but residents of the village of Cacalutla said they saw the four-seat army Cessna crash near the scene of the fighting.
Juan Garcia Ramirez, a Cacalutla municipal official, said villagers on Tuesday saw the plane plunging below the tree line trailing smoke before it exploded.
The clash was the second time in less than a week that the army and rebels have battled in Guerrero. Two soldiers and two rebels were killed in fighting Saturday.
Local reporters said hundreds of troops were searching the countryside around Atoyac for the rebels.
The group known as the EPR emerged in June 1996 near here and has staged small-scale raids on police and army posts since then that have killed more than 30 people, mainly soldiers and police.
The group says it is fighting for democracy and to force economic changes that will reduce poverty and create more jobs.
The organization does not appear to be related to the Zapatista National Liberation Army, which rebelled in January 1994 in the southernmost state of Chiapas and has been holding periodic peace talks with the government since.
In a statement issued earlier Tuesday, the EPR said confrontations in Guerrero may increase if the army continues to "militarize" the state.
Police and federal troops in recent months have arrested dozens of people in Guerrero and Oaxaca states for questioning in connection with EPR attacks. Human rights groups claim many have been seized without warrants and tortured.
Atoyac De Alvarez, Mexico (AP - May 29, 1997) Hundreds of soldiers searched the lush, palm-dotted hills around this southwestern city today, pursuing a daring rebel band that killed three soldiers in an ambush.
Soldiers in a dozen armored vehicles patrolled the winding dirt road where a military patrol was ambushed Tuesday - the latest hit-and-run attack by the Popular Revolutionary Army, which emerged a year ago in the violent state of Guerrero.
Two suspected guerrillas also died in the fierce fighting that followed the ambush. It was the second time in less than a week that Mexico's army and rebels have battled in Guerrero; two soldiers and two rebels were killed in fighting Saturday.
The group's emergence has alarmed and frustrated Mexican authorities, who have been unable to crack the organization and arrest any of its leaders.
Instead, dozens of suspected foot soldiers and alleged supporters have been rounded up in Guerrero and the neighboring state of Oaxaca. Human rights groups claim many have been seized without warrants and tortured.
The latest firefight erupted when about two dozen armed men ambushed a military anti-drug patrol near Atoyac, 35 miles west of the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, the military said.
Residents said hundreds of soldiers were deployed, along with three helicopters and two small air force planes. Witnesses say they saw an army Cessna crash during the fighting, although the army has not confirmed the loss of any aircraft.
The rebel band, known as the EPR, emerged in June 1996 near here. Since then, it has staged small-scale raids on police and army posts that have killed more than 30 people, mainly soldiers and police.
The group says it is fighting for democracy and to force economic changes that will reduce poverty and create more jobs.
The organization is unrelated to the Zapatista National Liberation Army, which rose up in January 1994 in the southernmost state of Chiapas. The Zapatistas have been holding periodic peace talks with the government since.
Coyuca De Benitez, Mexico (AP - May 30, 1997) After months of peaceful propaganda, the Popular Revolutionary Army is going on the offensive. Its killing of at least five soldiers in a week has prompted a statewide emergency in Guerrero.
Army troops in olive drab have stepped up their patrols along the isolated dirt roads criss-crossing the hill country of the southwestern state. Police in black uniforms crowd into pickup trucks to cruise the highways and look anxiously up into the mountains.
Tensions are already high here in the weeks before congressional elections in which the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, could lose the congressional majority it has held for nearly seven decades.
Here in Guerrero, PRI leaders have increased their attacks on the center-left opposition, accusing it of ties to the rebels and drug traffickers.
The rebels say the army is responsible for the violence, which also killed four guerrillas.
"These clashes are the result of harassment of our units ... and the militarization of the state", the rebels said in a statement Wednesday.
"Given the persecution that continues against our units, it is possible that there will be more clashes, that there will be more casualties for both armies."
The two clashes - on May 24 and Tuesday - were the first substantial confrontations since the year-old rebel movement known by its Spanish acronym, EPR, launched a series of hit-and-run attacks across the country in August, killing 18 people.
The first broke out on a rural highway near the town of Petatlan in central Guerrero. The rebels say they were passing out political leaflets when soldiers surprised them. Two army sergeants and two rebels were killed, and three army doctors were wounded.
On Tuesday, two dozen rebels ambushed a military patrol outside the small community of El Quemado, 35 miles west of Acapulco. Three soldiers and two rebels were killed in the firefight.
In a sign of how seriously the government is taking the new attacks, Mexico's defense secretary, Gen. Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, traveled by helicopter Sunday to inspect the scene of the first clash.
And the government convened a high-level security meeting in the state capital of Chilpancingo on Wednesday, the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada reported. It said state government officials and ranking members of the army, the federal attorney general's office and the Interior Secretariat all agreed to better coordinate their operations. Officials have not commented publicly on the meeting.
"The EPR is systematically attacking the Mexican Army", Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre said Thursday. "It is proof that the real face (of the rebel group) is of the violence of arms, of intolerance, of irrationality."
About a dozen small armored vehicles stood guard Thursday near the curve in a dirt road where Tuesday's firefight occurred. About 80 troops were setting up a temporary camp in a nearby field, erecting shelters with rope and black plastic sheeting.
Peasants living nearby said they were unnerved by the shooting so close to their homes, but that neither the soldiers nor the rebels had harmed them.
Arcadio Vargas, a compact man whose deeply lined face peered out from beneath a battered straw hat, said about 80 members of the EPR visited El Quemado a month ago to tell them about what they say is a fight for democracy and for economic changes that will reduce poverty.
"We were scared because we'd never seen them before", he said. "But then they talked to us just like anyone else."