Human Rights and the Environment

Case Study: Oil Extraction

Country: Mexico

Region: North America

Issues: Pollution, Resource Extraction, Water, Fossil Fuel, Fisheries/Marine Ecology, Indigenous People

Petroleos Mexicanos, or PEMEX, is Mexico's national oil company and holds rights to subsurface resources in Mexico. In the southeastern state of Tabasco, PEMEX's oil production practices have destroyed the environment on which agricultural and fishing communities once relied. Leaks from PEMEX pipelines have turned productive fresh water marshes into petroleum-polluted swamps. Poorly-maintained PEMEX pipes have caused several explosions, demolishing homes and killing those inside. Local people, no longer able to catch fish or graze cattle because of the contamination, have been forced to take low-paying jobs with PEMEX to repair leaks in the tubing used to transport oil; PEMEX provides the workers, who include children, with neither protective gear nor any cleansing solutions besides diesel. Angry at the company's and government's refusal to address their concerns, surrounding communities organized direct blockades of PEMEX access roads in 1996. The Mexican government responded by sending federal police and army troops to break up the blockades and subdue the movement. In December, 1998, Greenpeace sued PEMEX in Mexico for illegally dumping toxic petroleum wastes in the state of Veracruz.[1]

[1] See Dillon, "Mexico's Oil Monopoly Accused of Polluting Scores of Gulf Sites," New York Times, Dec. 3, 1998; See also Fellowship of Reconciliation, "PEMEX in Tabasco," Mar. 9, 1999; See also Greenpeace, The Oil Trail, Apr. 1997, .

Last Updated: 09/09/05