Mexican officials say they foiled an attempt on Pena's life

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Officials with the Puebla state attorney general’s office say they have detained three individuals who were planning an attack on Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto Sunday, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a report which appeared on the website of El Mundo de Cordoba the three men were detained Saturday in Primera Privada Francisco Villa in Tlaxcalcingo in Puebla state after police were tipped off to the plan of attack.

Detained were Ivan Izazola Vazquez, an engineering graduate of the Universidad Tecnologica de Tehuacan, Eduardo Salazar Vazquez and Xavi Vazquez.

According to officials in the Puebla state  Procuraduria General de Justicia del Estado, both Eduardo Salazar Vazquez and Xavi Vazquez were detained at a private villa with devices used to make Molotov cocktails.  The plan was revealed when the alleged ringleader, Izazola Vazquez, tried to buy more materials but was instead reported through the local emergency phone system.

According to reports Izazola Vazquez is the member of the Puebla Revolucion 2013 movement, which along with YoSoy132 student movement which began last summer, had been planning a protest march against Pena and his national government later in the afternoon in Zocalo square. 

Members of both organizations have been scrubbing “more aggressive” comments from Facebook pages in the wake of the detention of Izazola Vazquez.  Those organizations have also disclaimed any connection to the planned attack.

According to the report, the plan was to attack Pena and a number of Mexican officials for Cinco de Mayo celebrations in a convoy which will begin at 1100 hrs Sunday.

The attempted attack comes at the end of a difficult 10 days for President Pena.  A visit from US President Barak Obama ended with Obama refusing to address his government’s role in the Fast and Furious government sanctioned gun running scandal. 

One of Pena’s social programs, La Cruzada Contra la Hambre or Crusade Aganst hunger is in deep trouble with the national Chamber of Deputies when it was found that officials in Veracruz state have been using the program for political purposes.  That revelation has raised the calls for the resignation of his Secretaria de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL) Rosario Robles.

Another victim of those revelations is the stalled legislative agenda from the Pacto Por Mexico, which all three major political parties signed on to at the  start of Pena’s term last December.

Yo Soy 132 is a student movement began during Pena’s presidential campaign in which Pena campaign officials identified 131 students who participated in a particularly raucous demonstration and demanded they be disciplined.

The Yo Soy 132 movement now claims the three detainees are three provocateurs in their midst.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com