Mexico City official says animal rights group could be linked to car burnings

Mexico links animal activists to car burnings

MEXICO CITY — Investigators have found evidence linking an animal rights group to homemade bombs that burned seven vehicles in Mexico City, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The symbol of a local version of the Animal Liberation Front was found painted near the attacks in a residential neighborhood on the city’s south side, assistant city prosecutor Luis Genaro Vasquez told the Televisa news network. An anarchist symbol was also found.

The assailants apparently tossed bottles filled with flammable liquids at cars and trucks.

Police have detained three youths who say they are 17-years-old.

Vasquez said that animal rights activists may have committed other recent small bomb attacks against Mexico City businesses.

There was no mention of the Tuesday car burnings on a Spanish-language Web site dedicated to the Mexican group and no reply to e-mails sent to the site, which says it has no contact with the Front. The group has no listed Mexican telephone number.

Jerry Vlasak, a press officer for the U.S.-based North American Animal Liberation Press Office, said his organization receives anonymous news statements from the Mexican group but does not know who its members are because they operate secretly.

He said he had not received any statement about the car burnings, but added it would be typical of the Mexican’s group actions.

“They are not vandals. They’re not doing this for personal gain. They do this because they love animals,” Vlasak said.