Mexico looks for tall, repentant grenade attacker

Videos
Photos

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-18 10:57

MORELIA, Mexico -- Police searched Wednesday for a tall, heavyset man, using a composite sketch provided by witnesses who saw him lob a grenade into an Independence Day crowd, then beg for forgiveness before slipping away.

Mourners gather for a candlelight vigil after a man threw a grenade into a crowd Monday night in Morelia, Mexico. [Agencies]

Local officials and the US ambassador insisted Mexico's warring drug cartels were behind the attack that killed seven people Monday night, but federal prosecutors who took over the case said they did not have enough evidence yet to link the attack to organized crime.

"I believe the narco-terrorists have gravely underestimated the courage, valor, and strength of the Mexican people," US ambassador Tony Garza said in a statement, adding: "They have crossed a line from recklessly endangering civilians in their attacks on law-enforcement officials and rival gangs, to deliberately targeting innocent men, women, and children."

Two fragmentation grenades blocks apart were used in the attack on a family friendly ceremony marking the start of Mexico's 1810 war of independence. Seven people were killed and 108 were injured, and Mexicans' already shaky sense of safety was further rattled.

"Mexicans will not be the same after these cowardly acts," Michoacan Gov. Leonel Godoy said Wednesday. "But the people of Michoacan and those of Mexico are more than a cowardly act. We know how to rise above this."

Michoacan is at the center of Mexico's drug wars. Two of the main drug gangs are believed to be battling for control of lucrative drug routes that include Michoacan's Lazaro Cardenas port, its remote Pacific coastline and its relatively unpopulated pine-covered mountains.

President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 25,000 troops to drug hotspots around the country, beginning in late 2006 with Michoacan. On Wednesday, he traveled to Morelia, his hometown and the capital of Michoacan, and pledged "the full force of the state" in finding those responsible.

Previous page 1 2 Next Page