Posted on 01/25/2018 9:41:23 AM PST by RightGeek
Fuel theft is fast becoming one of Mexico’s most pressing economic and security dilemmas, sapping more than $1 billion in annual revenue from state coffers, terrorizing workers and deterring private investment in aging refineries that the government, following a 2014 energy reform, hoped instead would be thriving with foreign capital.
Because of government offensives that toppled narco kingpins in recent years, Mexico's drug cartels have splintered and are eager for new sources of revenue.
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The cash-rich cartels, believed by the Mexican government to generate well over $21 billion each year, are an increasing threat to Pemex, which in 2016 reported revenue of about $52 billion and generates about a fifth of government income.
“The business is more profitable than drug trafficking because it implies less risk,” said Georgina Trujillo, a ruling party congresswoman who heads the lower house energy commission. “You don’t have to risk crossing the border to look for a market,” she added. “We all consume gasoline. We don't all consume drugs.”
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Using the habitual narco offer of “plata or plomo,” or “silver or lead,” gangs extort refinery workers into providing crucial information. Their tactics, coupled with fighting between groups jockeying for access to the racket, have led to a surge of violence in cities like Salamanca, home to a third of the fuel taps discovered in Mexico in 2016.
Mutilated corpses of refinery workers, police and suspected fuel thieves increasingly appear around the city, terrifying its 260,000 residents. Cartels routinely festoon Salamanca with “narcomantas,” banners that mark territory or spell out grisly threats to rivals.
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“There is no incentive to invest in the Mexican refining system,” said John Auers, executive vice-president of Turner, Mason & Company, a global refining consultancy, citing “organized crime and corruption.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Sounds like a failed state sh*thole to me.
I would venture a guess that anything not nailed down in Mexico can be stolen.
What is so great about the United States that is not so great in other nations?
PLENTY of nations have natural resources, education, manpower, first world technology .... but they come here ... why ?
I THINK it might be our heritage of fundamental religious principles we just flat out cling to and rely on as we too struggle with making decisions and operating a culture.
The second Amendment is a big help, also
You have to wonder how long we can tolerate this failed narco state to our south. This is beyond ridiculous and getting far worse every day.
“You have to wonder how long we can tolerate this failed narco state to our south.”
I wouldn’t want to lose any American lives cleaning it up.
Build that wall!
Build it high and build it wide!
Mexico has become a kleptocratic plutocracy.
Kill everyone and let God sort out the pieces?
With razor wire on top!
Mexico has always been a failed state sh*thole.
Just don’t ever call it a s##thole....
Poor Mexico: so far away from God, so close to the United States.
Great line ....
Been around a long time...
Porfirio Díaz
“Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!”
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915) was a Mexican soldier and politician, who served seven terms as the President of Mexico.
As quoted in The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When (2006), by Ralph Keyes, New York City: St. Martin’s Griffin, p. 387
Nails don’t help, they steal those to sell as scrap.
Bullsh!t; they take the nails to.
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