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Corruption and repression in Mexico oil industry exposed
30 October 2009
The corruption and repression endemic in Mexico's oil industry is costing workers their lives according to a hard-hitting report released today.
The human rights report, Campeche Basin, paradigm of labour exploitation, written by independent campaigning journalist Ana Lilia Pérez, details a catalogue of unsafe practices, corruption and intimidation. The report puts forward evidence claiming that in many cases workers are being sent onto rigs, tugs and support vessels without safety equipment or training. Pérez also claims that those who are injured receive derisory compensation payments and that the deaths of those who are killed while at work are, in some cases, being covered up.
The gas and oil industry is controlled by the state-owned firm Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico's largest company and the country's main source of revenue; its main oilfield, Cantarell Complex, lies in the Bay of Campeche.
The report is being released on the second day of a major oil and gas industry conference in Mexico City on 30 October. The two-day cross-industry event on safety and industrial relations in the Mexican offshore industry has been organised by the Mexican Senate, in collaboration with the ITF and Mexican seafarers' unions.
Antonio Rodriguez Fritz, ITF Americas regional secretary, commented: "This conference marks the second anniversary of the collapse of the Usumacinta rig, just one of a series of deadly events, which cost the lives of 22 workers and the wounding of 68 others. We were shocked when we read Ana Pérez's report, as it reveals a rottenness at the core of the industry that we are gathering to address - and it seems to go deep, from violations of human rights to the multiplicity of 'yellow' company unions set up, with government support, to make sure that Pemex and the companies can carry on unfettered by considerations of decent safety and decent pay, and that workers' aspirations and complaints are normally never heard. The contents of the report strongly suggest that Pemex faces an uncertain future if this situation is not reversed."
Last year Pérez was forced into hiding when a warrant for her arrest was issued; her editor was arrested and the offices of Contralínea magazine raided following publication of her articles on corruption involving Pemex.
Related press:
28 October 2009
Report exposes deaths and corruption in Mexican oil industry
To mark the opening of a major oil and gas industry conference...
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