President to ‘eradicate’ theft after pipeline blast
Mexico’s president said yesterday that he would intensify efforts to stop fuel theft as the death toll in a pipeline fire in central Mexico rose to at least 71.
The pipeline exploded on Saturday night as it was being illegally tapped by thieves near the town of Tlahuelilpan, 120km north of Mexico City.
The blast came during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s campaign to eliminate rampant fuel theft. He has ordered thousands of troops and police to guard pipelines in recent weeks. The president has accused fuel thieves – known as huachicoleros – of sabotaging fuel lines to thwart the government crackdown.
Video of Saturday’s explosion showed people engulfed in flames screaming as they ran from the fire, and badly burned victims whose clothes had been seared off by flames. Officials said that at least in addition to the deaths, 75 people had been injured.
At the charred explosion site yesterday, people searched for signs of the victims, sorting through clothing, shoes and other items that those fleeing the blast had torn off in a desperate bid to escape the fire. As helicopters hovered overhead, onlookers directed police to charred human remains poking from the green fields.
A profound sense of shock and mourning was evident at the scene.
‘‘I came here in the night looking for my son, walking thru charred bodies lying on the ground,’’ said Martin Francisco Trejo Hernandez, 55. ‘‘Some people were still alive, screaming in pain, screaming for help. I never imagined I would see such a sight.’’ His son, Martin Alfredo Trejo, 34, father of a 6-year-old daughter, had yet to be found as the family continued its search.
Some said authorities buried bodies at the site with heavy equipment in the darkness. Police and troops called on residents to co-operate and move away from the charred pipeline.
Townspeople who descended on the explosion scene acknowledged that the siphoning of gasoline from pipelines was common. ‘‘In these towns, we all have a relative or friend who is dedicated to this,’’ said Jesus Cesar Vera Velazquez, 43, referring to fuel theft. ‘‘But they do it out of necessity, because of hunger. There’s no work here and people earn very little farming.’’ ‘‘Here, even the mayor protects huachicol (black market gasoline),’’ said Ruben Cruz, 51, a farmer who was among those who went to the site of the blast. ‘‘Authorities here receive money from huachicol. It pays very well and it’s an opportunity to have some money, enjoy a better life.’’ Before the explosion, as many as 800 people had converged on the site to gather gasoline, which gushed from the ruptured pipeline more than 7m into the air, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Mexico’s defence secretary, said yesterday. Scenes of the crowd circulated on social media and on Mexican television, showing some gatherers saturated with the flowing fuel.
Videos taken before the blast also showed soldiers milling about the scene and not appearing to make efforts to disperse the mob.
The defence secretary defended the military’s actions, saying soldiers had been unable to deter a sometimes ‘‘aggressive’’ crowd. On previous occasions, Cresencio said, people collecting black-market gasoline from ruptured fuel lines have attacked soldiers and police.
The explosion blast intensified the debate over Lopez Obrador’s efforts to end what he calls the ‘‘scourge’’ of fuel theft, an illicit industry that has grown in recent years and which is controlled by some of the country’s most powerful and violent criminal groups.
The president, a leftist populist elected last year on an anticorruption platform, has complained that fuel theft costs Mexico US$2.5 to US$3.5 billion annually. His efforts in recent weeks to divert fuel from pipelines frequently targeted by thieves and transporting more fuel by tanker truck have sparked gasoline shortages around the country, with hours-long waiting times at some pumping stations.
– LA Times