Security & Strategic Review February 2009 (ISSN 1741-4202)

Two recent thefts of large quantities of explosives in northern Mexico have given rise to much speculation about the possibility that Mexico's drug cartels may be about to turn to bombings as a new strategy in their war with the government — or that guerrillas may be stockpiling in order to launch a bombing campaign similar in magnitude to the EPR's attacks on oil installations in 2007. There is a third possibility that has not attracted as much attention: that the explosives were intended to be sold on to buyers abroad — most probably Colombia's Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerrillas.