66 DEATH AND 71 INJURED IN FIRE

OF A FLOOD IN MEXICO

The fire occurred in the town of Tlahuelilpan in the state of Hidalgo, about 100 km north of Mexico City. A few hours before the leak of the pipeline had attracted dozens of residents of this town came to recover fuel with buckets and jerrycans.

"I deeply regret the serious situation suffered by Tlahuelilpan because of the explosion of a pipeline," responded on Twitter the Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador. "I call on the entire government to help the people there," he added.

Firefighting units and ambulances of the state oil company Pemex have been dispatched to the scene to rescue the victims, said the governor of the state of Hidalgo where Tlahuelilpan, Omar Fayad is.

Illegal collection and loss of earnings of $ 3 billion.

"We know that it was a clandestine levy and that the competent authorities were already taking care of it," said the governor of Hidalgo. More than 10,000 siphoning was registered that year on the pipelines of the oil company Pemex, according to official figures. A crime that caused a loss of some $ 3 billion (2.64 billion euros) in 2017 and 2018 to the Mexican state, according to official figures.

That's why the government of new President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador is implementing a national strategy against fuel theft.

Indeed, some criminal gangs or single families practice these illegal levies to sell them then to the black market, especially in the state of Puebla (center), epicenter of the phenomenon known as "Huachicol". Around this illegal practice has even developed a local culture with popular songs and religious figures carrying a can and a plastic pipe. Official service stations even distribute stolen fuel.

The government, taking the bull by the horns, closed several pipelines carrying fuel to stop these flights. This strategy has caused a shortage of fuel in a dozen states of the country, including the capital.

President André Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on 1 December, urged Mexicans to be patient with this chaotic situation.

According to the authorities, the gangs have complicity in the national company, so the former chief of company security is currently being investigated for fuel theft.