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News > Mexico

Don't Play Into the Hands of Fuel Thieves, Mexico: AMLO

  • Together the country can reverse the damage done to the fuel industry under past administrations, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

    Together the country can reverse the damage done to the fuel industry under past administrations, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said. | Photo: EFE

Published 13 January 2019
Opinion

"These corrupt people take advantage of the owners of rural oil reserves," the president said.

Mexicans should beware of “fuel thieves” taking advantage of rural oil reserves, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) said Sunday in Acambay.

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AMLO: Previous Governments 'Completely Destroyed Mexico'

"I ask the people to not entertain these corrupt people who say 'here you have gas’ and then take advantage;  I ask that people do not protect these criminals; that people act with honesty," said Lopez Obrador (AMLO) during an event to promote his program, "Pension for the Welfare of the Elderly."

The president assured that the oil shortage left by previous administrations is temporary and can be remedied quickly if the nation bands together to end these clandestine transactions.

"It is nothing more than changing the distribution system, controlling the pipelines because before they were completely open and milked. Now they are monitored closely and opened according to need so that there are no leaks and they do not continue to harm the country by supplying the black market,” AMLO said, urging the public to be patient and remain calm during the transition.

Together, the president said in a WhatsApp message, the country can reverse the damage done, but support from citizens is vital to the end of black markets and illicit transactions.

"Talk to people, especially talk to those who, by necessity, supported those illegal acts. You have to talk to them and convince them that now the government does not steal and now nobody is going to lack work and well-being,” he said.

Lopez Obrador announced the plan to combat fuel stealing, known as 'huachicoleo,' on December 27, saying that such theft costs the state more than US$3 billion every year.

“We already have surveillance throughout this pipeline and in one thousand 600 kilometers of the four most important pipelines in the country. The Army, the Navy, the Federal Police are backing me and, I repeat, the people are backing me... if they continue to support me, together we are going to feel very satisfied with the huachicol.”

On December 20, security officers began monitoring the state-owned fuel company’s pipelines. In January, AMLO closed them, opting instead to transport fuel by road in supervised tanker trucks.

Even though there’s enough fuel, the strategy and collective panic caused shortages in several cities, leaving people facing long queues to get their tanks filled.

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