Americas News
Blasts shake Mexico's electoral tribunal, party HQ and bank
By DPA
Nov 6, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Mexico City - At least three explosions shook Mexico City early Monday, affecting buildings housing the country's electoral tribunal, the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) and a branch of Scotiabank.

Mexican daily El Universal reported that the blasts happened simultaneously in different parts of the capital and caused substantial material damage, although it cited police sources as saying no one was hurt.

No claims responsibility were reported for the attacks. Police did not rule out a possible connection with the ongoing unrest in the southern state of Oaxaca. There, protestors have for five months demanded the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz, a member of PRI, in a conflict that has caused 11 deaths.

Mexico City's Minister of Public Safety Joel Ortega confirmed three explosions took place and a fourth was prevented. He explained that emergency phone services received two calls shortly after midnight that claimed bombs would be detonated within minutes.

The artefact that was defused had been placed at a second branch of the Scotiabank, Ortega said.

Sources in the investigation told El Universal that the blast at the federal electoral tribunal was 'much more sophisticated' than others that have been defused there in the past.

PRI spokesman Carlos Flores Rico indicated that a night watchman heard two explosions at the back of the building, in an attack that partially destroyed the party's auditorium.

Mexico is currently in the middle of a wave of social unrest.

Federal police forces have been sent to the capital of the state of Oaxaca and have clashed with left-wing protestors that accuse Ruiz of corruption and electoral fraud.

Further, the losing candidate in the country's July 2 presidential election, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has refused to recognise the triumph of conservative Felipe Calderon.

Calderon is set to be inaugurated as the country's president on December 1, but Lopez Obrador has scheduled his own parallel ceremony for November 20.