Pemex and the drug war: A perilous intersection

What has also percolated just below the shootouts, deaths and violence that have been increasingly seared into our collective binational minds as Mexico’s drug war persists is an alarming intersection between the drug violence and Mexico’s energy sector.

Fuel theft from Pemex pipelines, money laundering by way of service stations and worst of all, provocative kidnappings of the company’s executives are all on the rise.

Unofficial figures place thefts from the Pemex network at over $750 million annually. And security experts point to this as an important source of revenue for drug cartels – especially as the Mexican government continues to crack down on them.

Thefts from the Pemex network are not new, but the increase and the strain it is placing on the already-taxed company is important. And the illegal tapping has grown significantly in the areas where the drug war is most pervasive.

More recently, kidnappings of Pemex executives in Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon have sent shudders throughout the company and Mexico.

The string of kidnappings combined with the spike in fuel thefts and illegal trading has led some to question whether Pemex is fully in charge of all its facilities across the nation. And led to perhaps the most ominous question of all: Is the company being infiltrated by the perpetrators of the nation’s drug business?

For Mexico and Pemex this is but the latest in a string of unfortunate news -- and a twist that has seemingly linked two previously unconnected drags on the nation.

Indeed, energy is not a sector of the economy where Mexico needs any further impediments.