Soldiers and other military personnel surrounded the cordoned-off area. Lopez Obrador pledged to step up his government’s drive to stamp out fuel theft, which has cost the country billions of dollars in the last few years. Veteran leftist Lopez Obrador launched a crackdown on fuel theft on Dec 27 and ordered pipelines to be closed temporarily to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). “Far from stopping the fight ... against fuel theft, it’s going to become stronger, we’ll continue until we’ve eradicated these practices,” Lopez Obrador said early on Saturday. “At some point there were too many people there and the army and military personnel withdrew to avoid problems,” Public Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told broadcaster Televisa.

Source: bd News24 January 19, 2019 14:03 UTC