Mexico gasoline protests, four dead and hundreds arrested during mass looting
Mexico gasoline protests, four dead and hundreds arrested during mass looting:- Protests and looting fueled by anger over gasoline price rises of 20% in Mexico have led to four deaths, the ransacking of at least 300 stores and the arrests of more than 700 people, officials said.
The country’s business chambers said supplies of basic goods and fuel were threatened by the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting this week that forced many businesses to close. The mass lootings came before Friday’s Epiphany or Three Kings Day holiday.
Two people were found dead amid looting in the port city of Veracruz. State prosecution officials said late on Thursday the killers had not yet been identified.
Earlier, officials said a bystander was run over and killed by a driver fleeing police also in Veracruz, and a police officer was killed trying to stop robberies at a gas station in Mexico City.
Mexicans were enraged by the 20% fuel price rise announced over the weekend as part of government deregulation of the energy sector.
While acknowledging the anger, President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Thursday he would forge ahead with the deregulated price scheme, which would do away with fuel subsidies and allow gasoline prices to be determined by prevailing international prices.
“I know that allowing gasoline to rise to its international price is a difficult change, but as president, my job is to precisely make difficult decisions now, in order to avoid worse consequences in the future,” Peña Nieto said in a televised address. “Keeping gas prices artificially low would mean taking money away from the poorest Mexicans, and giving it to those who have the most.”
Peña Nieto said the other big challenge for Mexico in 2017 was to “build a positive relationship with the new US administration,” something he said would be done with Mexico’s “unbreakable dignity”.
While looting calmed somewhat on Thursday, protesters blocked highways at about two dozen places. For much of the week, protesters have blockaded gas stations and some people have broken into stores to carry off merchandise.
Police in Mexico’s capital said they had arrested 76 people for looting about 29 stores.
Veracruz governor Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares ventured out on Thursday and tried to persuade a crowd not to attack a grocery store that had already been looted a day earlier. He offered the crowd coupons for 500 pesos ($23). Yunes later said that wasn’t an incentive to stop looting, but rather an offer of assistance to help single mothers buy holiday gifts.
In Mexico state, which borders Mexico City, 529 suspected looters were detained. Four police officers were fired and detained after they were caught on video taking some looted items and putting them in their patrol vehicles. Video of the Wednesday disturbances showed riot-like scenes of people streaming out of stores carrying flat-screen TVs and other items.
Officials said many of the looting incidents were promoted through social media.
With blockades affecting everything from gas distribution terminals, seaports and highways to shopping centers and gas stations, the Communications and Transport Department announced it would cancel the permits of any truckers who block roads. Truck and taxi drivers have been among the most affected by the fuel price increases.
The change boosted the average price for a liter of premium gasoline to 17.79 pesos (about 90 cents). That makes four liters, or about a gallon, equal to nearly as much as Mexico’s recently raised minimum wage for a day’s work – 80 pesos (about $4).
The National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores of Mexico said in a statement more than 79 stores were looted and 170 were closed or blockaded in central Mexico, including the capital.
In the city of Veracruz, 50 establishments including convenience stores, supermarkets and large outlets suffered looting, according to a preliminary count by the local chamber of commerce.
Source:- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/06/mexico-gasoline-protests-four-dead-and-hundreds-arrested-during-mass-looting
