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BACKGROUND TO ACCIDENTS

Tens of accidents which have taken place during the last decade, the last one and one of the most serious in July 1996, bear witness that PEMEX has not been able to guarantee the safety of the rural communities living near the petrochemical plants, gas and oil pipelines

An enormous network of pipelines, for the distribution of natural gas and oil, runs through the Mexican state of Tabasco. According to the Regional Branch of PEMEX, on the 2,000 km of right of way belonging to the company, there are 2,600 established settlements. The Platano y Cacao settlement is one of the critical zones, the region beneath the soil surface is criss-crossed by some 25 pipelines coming from the Cactus and Ciudad PEMEX industrial installations. The areas where these pipelines criss-cross are called locally "devil traps" because the instruments running inside the pipelines to record their conditions are called "diablos".

The main cause of explosions in these pipelines is the lack of maintenance and surveillance. The risks are increasing because the state and federal authorities have not been effective in moving the population to a new location. In the Ejido San Eligio community (communal farmland), which belongs to the Platano y Cacao settlement, there is a kindergarten just 8 meters away from one of those devil traps.

Another issue very related to the accidents is the exemption of penalty applied to PEMEX, when time comes to look for accountability. The investigations started over two years ago by the Office of the Attorney General about an accident in 1995 that caused the death of several inhabitants, are kept on a stanstill. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, former head of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH), and now the Attorney General (PGR), has paid no attention to the recommendations he himself had previously signed.

In the disaster occurred in February 1995, the explosion of three devil traps in Platano y Cacao produced the death of 7 people, severe injuries to 23 others and damages to the houses of 118 families that had to be relocated. The insurance company Lloyd's Register, contracted by PEMEX to establish the cause of the accident, concluded that the exploding pipelines had lost up to 50% of their thickness, after almost twelve years of corrosion.

The inspections carried out by British Gas and the NKK Corporation in May 1996, discovered a total of 2,408 anomalies along the Ciudad PEMEUX-Cactus pipelines and the gas pipeline of Ciudad PEMEX. Two of these anomalies, ranked as high risks, are located one just 5 kms off the Villahermosa, capital city of the state of Tabasco, and the other within the Platano y Cacao Settlement. This proves that the Mexican government owned industry did not amend its maintenance and surveillance policies after the 1995 accident. In July 1996, just one month after the inspections, a gas processing installation in Cactus, in the state of Chiapas, which is part of the same pipelines network, blew up provoking the worst accident in the last few years.

Although PEMEX pledge to relocate the inhabitants of high risk zones in Platano y Cacao and to compensate the victims of the disaster, the unfulfillment of such a pledge has prompted the community to seek the intervention of the Tabasco Committee for Human Rights. The Committee addressed a letter to the CNDH, with the following demands:

To implement immediate measures to prevent environmental pollution and damages to property and crops for which PEMEX is held responsable..

Among the conclusions obtained by the CNDH after the investigation of the accident, there are significant expert reports which indicate that the corrosion of the pipelines that originated the explosion developed over several years without being detected, although the surveillance of the pipelines can be done through very simple studies. This calls attention to a clear negligence from the side of the Mexican oil petroleum industry. In view of the evidence, the CNDH requested the intervention of the Office of the Attorney General which began inquiry 31/95 to clarify the facts. After a short time the CNDH detected serious irregularities in the investigation and no definitive results have been produced until now.

AFTER AN ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION, THE CNDH PUT FOR THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS:

To Adrian Lajous, General Director of PEMEX: To collaborate with the government of the state of Tabasco to find a solution to the problems generated by the petroleum industry installations; to comply right away with the recommendations about safety issued by the Federal Attorney for the Protection of the Environmental, the Technical Commission for Environmental Impact Assessment and the Lloyd Register Company; to take the necessary steps to prevent this kind of accidents, and to initiate an administrative action against all staff involved in the February 16th, 1995 explosions. Finally, to take immediate action in order to relocate the nursery school in the Ejido de San Eligio.

To Roberto Madrazo Pintado, Governor of the State of Tabasco: to make a diagnostic of the problems generated by the oil industry installations and to bring about alternative solutions; to create a program for civil protection, to assist the population of the state of Tabasco in case of a disaster; to intervene to relocate the San Eligio school and kindergarten, and to enforce the agreements signed by the state in relation to the relocation of the victims.

To Julia Carabias, Ministry for Environmental, Natural Resources and Fisheries: to create a permanent environmental auditing program for the oil installations in the state of Tabasco.

To Antonio Lozano Gracia, the Attorney General: to clarify the facts and to impose a penalty on the persons found responsable, including any PGR expert who may have incurred in irregularities during the 31/95 inquiry.

In the recommendation 92/100, the CNDH makes known that: "during the visits ....we have seen pipelines passing through permanent settlements, and oil wells, burners and gas pipelines a few meterss away from houses."

More that two year after the explosion, the demands of the victims and the recommendations of the CNDH are still unattended. Those whose properties were damaged have not been relocated, accountability has not been determined and no civil protection program has been implemented. PEMEX continues to neglect the maintenance and surveillance of the pipeline network. Technically, the situation remains pretty much the same as it was ten years ago.