By Mica Rosenberg and Luis Rojas
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico City investigators on Mondayidentified the suspect behind a bungled bomb attack and saidthe man, the only one killed by the explosion, had targeted adirector at the capital's public security ministry.
Mexico City's top prosecutor Rodolfo Felix named the victimof Friday's bomb, a man believed to have been carrying it whenit exploded, as 44-year-old Juan Manuel Meza. He did not saywhether Meza was working alone or for a criminal gang.
On Friday, Felix said the blast may have been a botchedattack by one of Mexico's powerful drug cartels, and appearedto rule out a small left-wing guerrilla group that bombed fuelpipelines last year.
"From the investigations and the evidence we have gathered,we can state that the target of the explosive device was adirector of the public security ministry," Felix told a newsconference late on Monday.
He said a woman who was badly burned in the explosion wasbeing treated as a suspect after security camera footage, whichhe aired, showed her talking to Meza shortly before the blast.
Meza, who was killed when the bomb he was apparentlycarrying went off prematurely, was lying in wait for his targetin a street near the ministry headquarters in central MexicoCity, Felix said.
The injured woman, named as Tania Munoz, had raisedsuspicions by asking questions about her companion as she wastaken to hospital on Friday.
The video footage showed her walking along the street withMeza, who was carrying a small bag, minutes before the smallhomemade bomb exploded, also hurting a third man.
Mexico City police chief Joel Ortega said security wasbeing tightened across the capital of 18 million people, one ofthe world's largest cities. He said more police helicopterswould fly overhead and bomb squads would patrol busy areas.
"We want to have rapid response capabilities at strategicpoints," he said. Police checked cars leaving the city over theweekend.
Mexico has no known major terrorist groups, but feudingdrug cartels killed more than 2,500 people last year in brutalgangland-style executions, as President Felipe Calderondeployed the army to crush them.
Drug gang hit men regularly murder police chiefs andjudges, and three heavily armed men arrested in January wereplanning to kill the country's deputy attorney general. Howevergangs have not been known to use bombs so far.
Since Friday, city authorities have received nine callswarning of bombs, but all were false alarms, police said.
(Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Eric Walsh)
