MEXICO .- They arrived from the central state of Hidalgo with tons and tons of vegetables. Carrots, cabbages, lettuce, onions … until adding 200, 000 kilos for free delivery, according to social networks. Farmers who from one day to the next appeared as a miracle to help “in times of pandemic.”
It was in some communities in the state of Oaxaca; the gift came from Puebla. Specifically of the agricultural fields of Tochoapan, a region where agriculture and another less noble activity mix equally : fuel theft or better known in the popular slang as “huachicol”.
They cited them in spaces known to all the residents and they appeared there. “Given, even stabbing,” said some while filling bags, sacks and boxes, while whispering to a name: Antón Valente Martínez.
The local press accused that man of being the alleged promoter of the initiative to give vegetables to people and being a member of a criminal group specialized in pipeline drilling. “A Robin Hood huachicolero”.
Because the huachicoleros move with money to win sympathy and thus they maintain the theft of fuel as one of the recurring crimes in Mexico despite the fact that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared war on them at the beginning of his administration.
The milking of Pipelines throughout the country are still a reality and a booming business outside the law that goes a long way: at the beginning of 2019, official figures reported losses of 3, 250 million annual dollars for Petróleos Mexicanos, the parastatal company that is one of the pillars of public finances of the country.
The president recently said that the numbers dropped from 81, 000 barrels stolen during the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, his predecessor, to 6, 000 barrels per day reported in September, but there is no information verification mechanism to prove this reduction.
In the first days of January this year, the federal forces reported 26 shots clandestine and recovered more than 108, 000 liters of various hydrocarbons that had been stolen from various facilities of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in six states of the Republic.
The most relevant action occurred at north of the country in Nuevo León, where a man who was driving a double tanker tractor transporting 56, 700 liters of hydrocarbons, whose legal origin could not be verified.
In the south of the country, in the Rafael Pascacio ejido, municipality of Reforma, Chiapas, another truck was found abandoned with a tanker tank containing 33, 600 liters of LP gas among other findings with disastrous consequences.
Similar cases occur in other states. The federal Undersecretary of Public Security (SSP), Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, acknowledged in a press conference that Hidalgo, a neighboring entity of the Mexican capital, tops the list of fuel theft according to the number of investigation files opened before the public ministry during 2020: almost 2, 500.
Puebla is in second place with 2, 382; the State of Mexico in third place with 2, 344 complaints. The federal official said that seven states concentrate the 72% of hydrocarbon theft in the country. Other of the first three are: Veracruz, Guanajuato, Tabasco and Nuevo León.
ESTELA
One of the repercussions of huachicoleo is insecurity. Violence in the state of Guanajuato – where violent murders are counted at the order of 13 per day with only six million inhabitants – , it would be impossible to understand without the expansion and consolidation of organizations dedicated to the theft of fuel.
From León to Celaya, Irapuato , Salamanca, Cortázar, Pénjamo: no Guanajuato municipality escapes despite the capture last August of José Antonio Yépez “El Marro”, one of the most wanted huachicoleros.
El Marro bled the town in violent clashes with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel that disputed the territory where he had his residence with gardens, pools, stables, and … even his own clandestine fuel supply!
After his apprehension, some relatives and subordinates replaced him and the battles continue with a bravado of bodies, shootings, kidnappings …
The dismemberment of a cell or the capture of a capo is followed by a trail of barbarism that repeats itself over and over again: the year 2020 was the most violent in all the history of Mexico with more of 40,000 murders; many of them, by huachicoleo.
In recent days, the discovery of a tunnel in Otumba, State of Mexico, ended with the murder of five masons who had worked in the area. The soldiers found a clandestine fuel outlet and, while exploring the site, they also came across a cavity of approximately 50 centimeters wide by 1. 50 meters high and a length of 200 meters.
The tunnel passed under the railroad tracks, through some crops of nopal and ended in a land integrated into a house, where the huachicoleros connected a high pressure hose of 500 meters long and approximately two inches wide. diameter finally disabled by the army before it murdered the masons who worked on the work.
REASONS
In various entities of the country, the authorities recognize that the huachicoleros and other criminal organizations maintain control of ter ritorio through scaring the population with murders of his critics or whistleblowers. Also with pressure, purchase or cohesion of votes to impose on their candidates.
In recent times, the governor of the state of Puebla, Miguel Barbosa, revealed after the arrest of the Huachicolero leader nicknamed “El Moco” that he was arrested while transporting pantries to the neighboring state of Hidalgo where elections will be held as Antón Valente made with vegetables from Puebla to Oaxaca.
“We are Pay attention, because apparently the gangs dedicated to the theft of fuels are supporting some candidates for candidacies for the next electoral process in the Sierra Norte and throughout the state. ”
For analysts of security as Guadalupe Correa, associate professor at George Mason University, the absence of punishment and attack to the criminals makes any crime perpetuate and more even if it has political backing.
“This is a whole business that involves many agencies, many people. We are not just talking about drug dealers, huachicoleros who sell the product at retail, we are talking about an entire industry that involves many people. All those interests will be damaged and they will be rearranged if the actions that should be taken are not really taken and impunity continues. ”
In the few cases in which there has been an exemplary punishment, the sentences have been more related to homicides than to the theft of hydrocarbons.
The 20 last December, The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) obtained a sentence of 50 years in prison against four people who participated in the homicide of elements of the Mexican Army, during a confrontation in 2017 at the auxiliary board of Palmarito Tochapan in the municipality of Quecholac, where a band dedicated to fuel theft, kidnappings and homicides
Other cases, on the other hand, stagnate or lack evidence, go free or without sentences like in the case of the former Enrique Peña official accused by the government of AMLO of the biggest looting of Pemex in the history of Mexico: Eduardo León Trauwitz, who, instead of establishing protection actions against threats and risks, put together a network of protection to the huachicoleros.
For security analysts such as Guadalupe Correa, associate professor at George Mason University, the prevalence of fuel theft, like that of other crimes, is related to the lack of combat at complicities of the high political spheres as well as finance.
”We are not talking only about huachicoleros who sell the product, we are talking about an entire industry that involves many people, including officials and politicians. All those interests will be damaged and they will be rearranged if the actions that should be taken are not really taken and impunity continues. “
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