Deadly blast fails to end fuel theft in Mexico
Print Edition
Days after a fireball erupted near the Mexican town of Tlahuelilpan, killing at least 117 people pilfering gasoline from a pipeline, the area鈥檚 fuel bandits were back in business.
Illegal taps, some of them newly opened, were the giveaway that fuel was flowing again. Soldiers patrolling this area in central Mexico after the January 18 tragedy said they found 15 illicit spigots just a few kilometers away on the same pipeline operated by the nation鈥檚 state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos or Pemex.
Such is the mammoth task confronting President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has vowed to end Mexico鈥檚 rampant fuel theft. The practice is depriving the government of badly needed tax revenue; it cost Pemex an estimated US$3 billion last year alone.
Security experts say small-time thieves, organized crime gangs and corrupt Pemex employees all have a hand in the trade. The crudest operators hack into pipelines to siphon gasoline and diesel, often at night in rural outposts. They then resell it to gas station owners, at roadside stands and in open-air markets.
Endemic theft
In December, Lopez Obrador announced a crackdown on the banditry. To thwart pipeline taps, he ordered Pemex to transport some fuel overland in tanker trucks. The result: widespread shortages and long lines at gas stations.
The bottlenecks have eased. But fuel theft is so endemic that the culture will be hard to break, even in Tlahuelilpan.
An estimated 800 of the town鈥檚 residents, many carrying buckets, had flocked to a nearby pipeline when word spread on social media that a large pool of gasoline had sprung from a bootleg tap. Dozens were killed when the gas ignited.
Marcelino Valdez, a Catholic priest in Tlahuelilpan, said in between funerals that many here support Lopez Obrador. But he doubted the president鈥檚 strategy would yield quick results in an area where nearly two-thirds of the population lives in poverty.
鈥淭he people don鈥檛 like to steal, it鈥檚 not something they enjoy,鈥 Valdez said. 鈥淏ut they look up and see so much corruption, and they see that their hands are empty.鈥
Since Lopez Obrador鈥檚 took office last month, the government has arrested 558 people accused of stealing fuel, frozen bank accounts and deployed soldiers at key Pemex installations.
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