Grace, PEMEX Fire/Complaint to OAS
Oil rig fire. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador lamented the loss of life on the weekend due to Hurricane Grace and a fire on a PEMEX offshore platform, which left one person dead, six others injured and others missing. “Unfortunately, it was not a good weekend, there were damages and what hurts the most, loss of life due to the hurricane (Grace) and also, yesterday, there was a fire on a PEMEX platform. So far, the report we have is that a PEMEX worker lost his life, there are injured and missing.”
The fire on the E-Ku A2 platform of the Ku-A Processing Center in the Campeche Sound was brought under control on Sunday afternoon. In addition to the PEMEX employee who was killed, three employees of the oil company and three from contractor COTEMAR were injured. Several people are still missing, according to PEMEX.
Support plan for Grace victims. López Obrador also said he would visit Veracruz to define a support plan for victims of Hurricane Grace. “In the case of the hurricane, there was also loss of human lives in Veracruz, in Xalapa, a family that faced a landslide due to bad weather and their home was affected, a woman, her children. And in other parts of Veracruz, they are also reporting deaths. The state government, the Ministry of Defense and the Navy are taking food. Yesterday afternoon, a plane with water left for Poza Rica, now another one is loading with jugs for that region, and we will continue supporting it. We are going to bring a plan of care to all the victims.” Grace hit Mexico’s Gulf coast on the weekend as a Category 3 hurricane, leaving several people dead.
LP gas check denied. The Federal Consumer Prosecutor’s Office (Profeco) announced that four service stations in Queretaro under the Mobil brand denied the federal agency access to review the stations and urged Mobil to intervene in its franchises. “By not allowing themselves to be clearly verified, these companies have something to hide and most likely they are not providing (consumers with) full liters,” a Profeco representative said. The representative added that the average price of diesel in the country during the past week was MX$21.69 (US$1.06); MX$22.40 (US$1.09) for Premium gas and MX$20.50 (US$1.00) for regular.
Complaint to the OAS. López Obrador warned his opponents to “be careful” in the face of a complaint that they will present to the Organization of American States (OAS) for the alleged interference of organized crime in the June elections. “The OAS has already issued a certification, if it can be called that, about the elections,” López Obrador said. “It has already issued an opinion on the Mexican elections and there was no serious violation for the OAS, so if it changes (that view), we would see it.” The complaint was drafted by the national leaders of the PAN, PRI and PRD opposition parties, who announced that they would present it to the OAS and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington.
INE requests funds to cover mandate revocation. Faced with the prospect of overseeing the revocation of the president’s mandate if López Obrador goes through with a planned referendum on his presidency early next year, the National Electoral Institute (INE) is asking for MX$5 billion (US$245 million). López Obrador called it “a very high amount” and questioned what INE was going to spend the money on. “The INE is doing it because it does not want there to be a democracy,” he said.
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Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish