Ten days have passed since the signing of the compensation agreement that will cover the losses caused by the incidents that occurred in the Mexico City Metro last year. A settlement that valued almost 200 million pesos for the incident that occurred on May 3, 2021, due to the collapse of a section of Line 12.
More than 1,300 million pesos will enter the capital’s coffers for both incidents. This week —as confirmed by GMX Seguros— 1,150 million were delivered and the remainder will be settled shortly.
The insurance policies for civil liability and damages were in force. And the insurers had the financial strength to deal with the risks transferred in the contracts, registered with the National Insurance and Surety Commission.
The SCT Metro initially claimed 4,000 million pesos as compensation for the fire at the Buen Tono Station. The international adjusters compiled irrefutable evidence about the obsolescence and lack of maintenance in the old control center, of which there will not be a brick left. The new electricity supply station that will work on the Delicias 36 property will mean savings. And it will also offer mute testimony to the effects of Republican austerity, which undermines strategic installations.
Both the fire in Buen Tono and the collapse of the track in a section of Line 12 —where 26 people lost their lives— revealed the lack of maintenance and supervision in the SCT Metro. Regarding the possible defects in its layout and construction by the then Head of Government, Marcelo Ebrard, and the construction company, the experts of the Capital Prosecutor’s Office must resolve. A group of relatives of those directly affected rejected the offer of compensation.
Whether due to the action of criminal gangs —due to huachicoleo— or due to lack of maintenance, Pemex’s gasoline refining complexes have registered increasingly frequent incidents, with subsequent millionaire losses. In particular, the Antonio Dovalí Jaime refinery in Salina Cruz has accumulated a dozen fires since the six-year term began and, according to workers, these facilities do not have the necessary and adequate supplies to combat large-scale conflagrations.
This same week there is a record of several explosions in the transformer area of the CFE’s Morelia Substation that —according to unconfirmed versions— generated significant material damage and the interruption of energy in several neighborhoods of the Michoacan capital. The parastatal’s workers, but above all the neighbors, were exposed.
Paradoxes of republican austerity: the savings in the budgets make it possible to cover the assistance programs of the Fourth Transformation, but they generated an imbalance in the control of risks. A situation that in itself was worrying because the last two federal administrations stopped investing in the replacement of equipment.
In the face of catastrophic events that affect strategic facilities —federal and state—, the large international firms are obliged to comply. But when losses are caused by lack of maintenance, oversight, or failure to anticipate replacement of obsolete equipment and technology, whose responsibility is it? From the insurance industry? And Agroasemex?
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Journalist and columnist for El Economista, author of Doña Perpetua: Elba Esther Gordillo’s power and opulence. Elba Esther Gordillo against the SEP.