MEXICO CITY -- In the war raging between drug cartels in western Mexico, gangs have begun using improvised explosive devices on roads to disable army vehicles.
The spokesman, who refused to reveal his name for fear of reprisals, said the explosion happened last Saturday in the town of Taixtan, near Tepalcatepec, where locals have been battling Jalisco gunmen for months. The Milenio television station described the IEDs as PVC pipe bombs buried with a round metal base below and a conical metal cap to direct or concentrate the blast.
It is not clear if the improvised land mines are only being used by one side in the bloody turf battle for control of Michoacan state, which drug traffickers value for its seaport and smuggling routes, as well as the opportunity to extort money from the state's growers of avocados and limes. In 2010, a car bomb aimed at federal police officers exploded in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing three people and wounding nine. A drug cartel suspect used a cell phone to set off the explosives-laden car, which killed a federal police officer and two civilians, and wounded nine people.
But the inhabitants of Michoacan are also fed up with the army's strategy of simply separating the Jalisco and the Michoacan-based Viagras gang. The army policy effectively allows the Viagras -- best known for kidnapping and extorting money -- to set up roadblocks and checkpoints on many of the state's roads. Limes, avocados and cattle heading out, or supplies heading in, must pay a war tax to the Viagras.