MEXICO: THE FIGUEROA CASE
The all-out hunt lot guerrilla leader Luclo Cabanas has turned up nothing after three weeks. The search, involvingrmy troops as well as units from the other two military services, was launched In an effort to kill Cabanas and rescue Senator Ruben Figueroa. the gubernatorial candidate kidnaped by Cabanas on
The government mounted the operation, concentrated in the high sierra northwest of Acepulco in Guerrero State, after receivingdemands from Cabanas that it termed "impossible" to meet. Government officials have expressed little hope the army will find Figueroa alive. Some army officials believo that Cabanas may have lefl the area during the nearly four-week period before troops were sent in. Also, an operation on this scale has never been Ined before and the lack of adequate long-range communica-tiony is apparent. Bad weather and rugged terrain hove further complicated the search. President Echeverria reportedly it considering posting the military units involved to Guerrero on abasis, but financial constraints may not allow it.
Pressed by the Figueroa case lo comment publicly on the country's guerrilla problem, Echeverria and olher government spokesmen have fallen back on answers clouded byMexican "revolutionary" traditions and myths. Gutrrillas are not working forinterests, Echeverria says, but are trying
to provoke regressive tendencies. He claims that guerrilla terrorism "appears to be more the work of the right than of the
The government's inclination loroblem with slogans will not ease the situation, and sporadic violence rs likely to continue tor some time. For the immediate period, guerrillas may try to embarrass Echeverria while tie is on his South American trip this month. This may have been the motive behind the bombings this week at both party and military headquarters in
Original document.
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