The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) claimed responsibility for Sept. 10 attacks on Pemex oil pipelines in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz. Authorities say an inscription in red on a section of pipeline read: "They were taken alive, we want them alive—EPR-PDPR." This seems to be a reference to recently "disappeared" militants associated with the Popular Democratic Revolutionary Party (PDPR), the EPR's political wing.

The message was found on the Cactus-San Fernando pipeline near La Antigua, Veracruz. The blasts on the pipeline, which carries oil from the Teapa refinery in neighboring Tabasco state to central Mexico, sent plumes of smoke into the sky, and prompted the evacuation of 20,000 residents from the village of Maltrata, its entire population. Five explosions also took place at a Pemex pumping station near Omealca, in the Sierra de Zongolica.

While the Los Angleles Times reported no deaths, Mexico's El Universal reports that two elderly residents of Omealca died after they suffered heart attacks during the blasts. (LAT, Sept. 12; El Universal, Sept. 11; El Universal, Sept. 10)

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