Popular Revolutionary Army

Last updated
Popular Revolutionary Army
LeadersEdmundo Reyes (alleged)
Dates of operation1996–present
Active regions Guerrero
Oaxaca
Chiapas
Guanajuato
Tlaxcala
Veracruz
(all Mexico)
Ideology Maoism
Revolutionary socialism
Political position Far-left
Size200–2,000
AlliesEjercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional, Flag.svg Zapatista Army of National Liberation (denied by EZLN)
OpponentsFlag of Mexico.svg  Mexico
Cartel del Golfo logo.png Gulf Cartel
Cartel De Sinaloa.png Sinaloa Cartel
Los Zetas
Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion logo 3.png Jalisco New Generation Cartel
Juárez Cartel
Battles and wars Guerrero, Chiapas conflict and Mexican drug war

The Popular Revolutionary Army or Ejercito Popular Revolucionario is a leftist guerrilla movement in Mexico. Though it operates mainly in the state of Guerrero, it has conducted operations in other southern-Mexico states, including Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guanajuato, Tlaxcala and Veracruz.

Contents

The EPR announced its existence on June 28, 1996, at the commemoration of the Aguas Blancas massacre one year earlier. Dozens of rebels, carrying AK-47 and AR-15 rifles, declared war against the Mexican government and read aloud the "Aguas Blancas Manifesto", as well as firing 17 shots into the air to pay respect to the 17 who died in the massacre.

Political ideology

The Popular Revolutionary Army advocates socialist peasant revolution. Subcomandante Marcos has distanced the EZLN from the EPR in his communiqués, largely because of the EPR activities in the state of Chiapas in the midst of peace talks in 1996 and 1997. The EPR though still asserts its support of the Zapatistas.

The Popular Revolutionary Army has founded a militarized political party, the Popular Revolutionary Democratic Party, or Partido Democrático Popular Revolucionario. The group often signs its communiqués "PDPR-EPR," combining the Spanish initials of the army and the party. However, the Popular Revolutionary Democratic Party does not function in the political world independent of the Popular Revolutionary Army; the party does not appear on ballots in any local or federal elections.

Attacks

EPR insurgency
Part of Chiapas conflict and Mexican drug war
DateJune 28, 1996 – present
Location
Status Ongoing
Belligerents

Flag of Mexico.svg Mexico

Mx-epr.gif Popular Revolutionary Army

Supported by:

Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional, Flag.svg Zapatista Army of National Liberation (denied by EZLN)

Flag of Venezuela.svg Venezuela (alleged)

Drug cartels:

Commanders and leaders

Flag of Mexico.svg Ernesto Zedillo (1996–2000)

Flag of Mexico.svg Vicente Fox (2000–2006)

Flag of Mexico.svg Felipe Calderón (2006–2012)

Flag of Mexico.svg Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018)

Flag of Mexico.svg Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–present)

Mx-epr.gif Edmundo Reyes

Mx-epr.gif Captain Emiliano

Cartel del Golfo logo.png Juan Nepomuceno Guerra

Cartel De Sinaloa.png Joaquín Guzmán Loera

Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion logo 3.png Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes
Casualties and losses
110 dead, 57 injured

1990s

June 28, 1996: After the reading of the "Aguas Blancas Manifesto" by "Captain Emiliano", guerrillas engaged police in a fire fight near the Guerrero capital of Chilpancingo, wounding several policemen and one civilian.

July 2, 1996: An EPR communiqué warns of "imminent" armed clashes with the army and police, this in response to the massive military presence in the area. Military intelligence concludes the EPR to be a genuine force, better equipped and organized than the EZLN.

July 17, 1996: An attack on an army patrol in the southwest of Guerrero wounds several soldiers and kills one civilian. Two weeks later an ambush on Navy patrolmen leaves another wounded.

August 7, 1996: EPR snipers killed one soldier and wounded several others. The EPR general command gave a press interview the same day. On August 25, the rebels claim to have killed 59 soldiers since June 28.

August 28 and 29: The largest assault so far, exceeding public and government conceptions about the group's strength. A coordinated multistate attack hits army, police, and government targets in Oaxaca, Guerrero, Puebla and the Federal District, killing 18 and wounding more than two dozen. The EPR claims 41 dead and 48 wounded. Guerrilla forces also blocked roads in Chiapas to distribute pamphlets and seized a radio station in Tabasco. President Zedillo at his State of the Union Address (Segundo Informe de Gobierno) said: "Against terrorism, all the power of the State" in a message that terrorist acts would be prosecuted.

May 1997: Two engagements left 5 soldiers and 4 guerrillas dead.[ citation needed ]

2000s

July 2007: EPR claimed responsibility for several attacks against Pemex oil facilities in the Bajío region and stated that the attacks would continue until two of its members were released. The government denies responsibility for the disappearance of these 2 members.

August 1, 2007: EPR also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a Sears store in Oaxaca, there was some damage but no injuries. On the same day the EPR also claimed responsibility for an attempted bombing of a Banamex bank branch also in Oaxaca. [1]

September 10, 2007: Pemex reported explosions due to sabotage on several pipelines located in the key energy producing state of Veracruz and further inland in Tlaxcala. [2] According to reports, there were six explosions targeting pipelines carrying natural gas, propane, and crude oil. The effects of the explosions were so severe that they caused the evacuation of over 20,000 people from the area. The explosions caused millions of dollars in damages to Pemex equipment. Additionally, it is estimated the explosions cost the Mexican economy $100 million a day as over 2,500 businesses were affected and 60% of Mexico's steel industry was shuttered. [3] On September 11, 2007, the EPR claimed responsibility for the explosions. [4]

Mexican government reaction

Following the July 2007 pipeline attacks, President Calderón deployed 5,000 special troops to secure the pipelines, along with dams and power plants. These troops began regular patrols of the region both on the ground and in the air. However, Pemex has 60,000 km of the pipeline so it will be difficult to secure the pipelines from saboteurs.

Shortly after the September pipeline attacks, the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (Mexican intelligence service) leaked a report stating that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was believed to be supporting the EPR with materials, armament, and training. [5]

Mexican magazine Contralínea has announced that at least 21 members of the EPR have gone missing apparently after being kidnapped by government forces since the arrival to power of President Calderón. These disappearances of political activists are not restricted to the EPR but also to many others independent activists. The government claims they are caused by narcotraffic gang disputes. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zapatista Army of National Liberation</span> Libertarian socialist political and militant group in southern Mexico

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, often referred to as the Zapatistas, is a far-left political and militant group that controlled a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acteal massacre</span> 1997 terror attack in Mexico

The Acteal massacre was a massacre of 45 people attending a prayer meeting of Catholic indigenous townspeople, including a number of children and pregnant women, who were members of the pacifist group Las Abejas, in the small village of Acteal in the municipality of Chenalhó, in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Right-wing paramilitary group Máscara Roja murdered the victims on December 22, 1997, while the Government of Mexico first admitted responsibility for the massacre in September 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pemex</span> Mexican state-owned petroleum company

Pemex is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and expropriation of all private oil companies in Mexico at the time of its formation. Pemex had total assets worth $101.8 billion in December 2019 and as of 2009 was Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue, surpassed only by Petrobras. The company is the seventh most polluting in the world according to The Guardian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de Mayo</span> Rebel group in Mexico

The Comando Jaramillista Morelense of May 23 is a rebel group in Mexico, attached to agrarian and leftist thoughts, taking the name of the agrarian leader and militar Rubén Jaramillo. His operation is a classic armed propaganda action that fulfilled one objective: to disseminate the existence of the command and its ideology. An initiative carried out at a time of profound political decomposition in the rest of the country, preceded by the making of paintings that gave account of the existence of the group in different parts of the states of Morelos.

EPR may refer to:

Subcomandante Elisa is a Mexican activist from Monterrey, Nuevo León. In the 1980s and early 90s, she served as a subcomandante in the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). She was arrested in February 1995 in connection with the 1994 Zapatista uprising. In 1996, the Mexican government acknowledged it was a wrongful arrest and acquitted her of all charges. Today, she is a professor at the Autonomous University of Social Movements.

<i>A Place Called Chiapas</i> 1998 Canadian film

A Place Called Chiapas is a 1998 Canadian documentary film of first-hand accounts of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) the and the lives of its soldiers and the people for whom they fight. Director Nettie Wild takes the viewer to rebel territory in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, where the EZLN live and evade the Mexican Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulises Ruiz Ortiz</span> Mexican politician

Ulises Ernesto Ruiz Ortiz is a Mexican politician and former governor of the State of Oaxaca. He took office in 2004 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aguas Blancas massacre</span> 1995 massacre in Mexico

The Aguas Blancas Massacre was a massacre that took place on 28 June 1995, in Aguas Blancas, Guerrero, Mexico, in which, according to the official version, 17 farmers were killed and 21 injured. Members of the Organización Campesina de la Sierra Sur were en route to Atoyac de Álvarez to attend a protest march demanding the release of Gilberto Romero Vázquez, a peasant activist arrested more than a month before. They were also marching to demand drinking water, schools, hospitals and roads, among other things. According to survivors, they were ambushed by the motorized police and several were shot point blank. Some of the events were captured on film, by the police themselves. Weapons were subsequently placed in the dead farmers' hands and the police said they acted in self-defense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 Oaxaca protests</span> Civil conflict in Oaxaca, Mexico

The Mexican state of Oaxaca was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least seventeen deaths and the occupation of the capital city of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). The conflict emerged in May 2006 with the police responding to a strike involving the local teachers' trade union by opening fire on non-violent protests. It then grew into a broad-based movement pitting the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) against the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Protesters demanded the removal or resignation of Ortiz, whom they accused of political corruption and acts of repression. Multiple reports, including from international human rights monitors, accused the Mexican government of using death squads, summary executions, and even violating Geneva Conventions standards that prohibit attacking and shooting at unarmed medics attending to the wounded. One human rights observer claimed over twenty-seven were killed by the police violence. The dead included Brad Will, Emilio Alonso Fabián, José Alberto López Bernal, Fidel Sánchez García, and Esteban Zurita López.

The San Andrés Accords are agreements reached between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the Mexican government, at that time headed by President Ernesto Zedillo. The accords were signed on February 16, 1996, in San Andrés Larráinzar, Chiapas, and granted autonomy, recognition, and rights to the indigenous population of Mexico.

Genaro Vázquez Rojas was a Mexican school teacher, organiser, militant, and guerrilla fighter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiapas conflict</span> Conflict in southern Mexico between the Mexican government and various left-wing militias

The Chiapas conflict comprised the 1994 Zapatista uprising, the 1995 Zapatista crisis and ensued tension between the Mexican state and the indigenous peoples and subsistence farmers of Chiapas from the 1990s to the 2010s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zapatista uprising</span> 1994 Uprising in Mexico by the Zaptistas

On 1 January 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) coordinated a 12-day uprising in the state of Chiapas, Mexico in protest of the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The rebels occupied cities and towns in Chiapas, releasing prisoners and destroying land records. After battles with the Mexican Army and police, a ceasefire was brokered on 12 January. Around 300 people were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subcomandante Marcos</span> Mexican activist

Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente is a Mexican insurgent, the former military leader and spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the ongoing Chiapas conflict, and a prominent anti-capitalist and anti-neoliberal. Widely known by his initial nom de guerreSubcomandante Insurgente Marcos, he has subsequently employed several other pseudonyms: he called himself Delegate Zero during the Other Campaign (2006–2007), and since May 2014 has gone by the name Subcomandante Insurgente Galeano, which he adopted in honor of his fallen comrade Jose Luis Solis Lopez, his nom de guerre being Galeano, aka "Teacher Galeano". Marcos bears the title and rank of Subcomandante, as opposed to Comandante, because he is under the command of the indigenous commanders who constitute the EZLN's Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee's General Command.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torre Ejecutiva Pemex explosion</span>

On 31 January 2013 in Mexico City, an explosion caused by a gas leak occurred beneath Building B-2 at the Torre Ejecutiva Pemex, a skyscraper complex that is the headquarters of Pemex, the Mexican state oil company. At least 37 people died and another 121 were injured when an explosion occurred in a building adjacent to the main tower. Earlier in the day, Pemex sent out a tweet saying that the building was being evacuated due to a "problem with the electrical system" in the complex that includes the skyscraper.

On 18 January 2019, a pipeline transporting gasoline exploded in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. The blast killed at least 137 people and injured dozens more. Mexican authorities blamed fuel thieves, who had illegally tapped the pipeline. The explosion was particularly deadly because large crowds of people had gathered at the scene to steal fuel. Security forces tried to persuade people to move away from the scene, but they were outnumbered and asked not to engage with civilians for fear of causing a violent confrontation. The leak was reported at 17:04 CST (23:04 UTC), and the explosion occurred two hours later at 19:10. It took about four hours for responders to extinguish the fire.

The National Liberation Forces were an insurgent group in Mexico. It was founded in 1969 by a group of young regiomontanos led by César Yáñez Muñoz, integrating the members of an old dissolved organization called the Mexican Insurgent Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Práxedis G. Guerrero Autonomous Cells of Immediate Revolution</span> Mexican urban guerrilla group

The Práxedis G. Guerrero Autonomous Cells of Immediate Revolution was an urban guerrilla group that centered its attacks in the metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico, extending some attacks to neighboring states. This group, along with a dozen other cells, came to be considered a serious threat to the stability of the Mexican capital according to publications made by CISEN.

Major Ana María is the nom de guerre of one of the first military leaders who led the Zapatista uprising in San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the Southwest of Mexico.

References