In the present paper, we advance considerably the current knowledge on the topic of bifurcations of heteroclinic cycles for smooth, meaning C ∞, parametrized families {g t ∣t∈ℝ} of surface diffeomorphisms. We assume that a quadratic tangency q is formed at t=0 between the stable and unstable lines of two periodic points, not belonging to the same orbit, of a (uniformly hyperbolic) horseshoe K (see an example at the Introduction) and that such lines cross each other with positive relative speed as...