In a nation already accustomed to a high-levels of crime-related violence, the recent activities of a little known anarchist group have left Mexicans baffled. The explosion of a parcel bomb sent to a nanotechnology professor at the prestigious Tecnologico de Monterrey last Monday injected an element of magic realism to Mexico’s crime wave. Professor Armando Herrera Corral and another professor from the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Estado de Mexico, were wounded when Corral opened a package that contained the rudimentary bomb. The anti-technology group that took credit for the attack, Individuals Tending to Savagery, opposes nanotechnology, the science that seeks to build machines in the size of molecules.

The attack against the Tec is seen as heresy, Mexico is very proud of this prestigious private university that styles itself after the Massachusetts Technology Institute (MIT). In April, the same group sent another parcel bomb to the Instituto Politecnico, a science polytechnic, the intended target was another nano scientist, but was accidentally detonated by a security guard who lost an eye in the incident.

The story took a lurid twist after speculation connected the case to the 5 August disappearance of scientist Yadira Davila Martinez, a genome specialist who vanished in a shopping mall in Cuernavaca, a town located an hour outside if Mexico City. The police have found a dismembered body they believe may be that of Davila Martinez and a final DNA identification is pending. Davila Martinez worked for the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, UNAM, Mexico’s country’s top public university.  Her case might just be a coincidence — two drug groups are fighting a turf war in Cuernavaca — but if her case is linked to the anti-technology group, it would bring a dangerous new element to the Mexico’s violence.  In the past other anarchist groups placed bombs at ATM tellers in Mexico City, but this is the first rash of serious attacks directed against individuals.

Individuals Tending to Savagery take their cue from Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber in the United States who engaged in a 20 year letter bombing spree against universities and companies he identified as degrading the environment. The attack has terrified the university community in Mexico City. Government officials have called on all institutions to upgrade their security.