Another controlled ‘event’, again
Pemex came out to say that everything is under control after detecting hydrocarbon on the southern coast of Veracruz. They call it ‘situation’ and ‘event’. Never ‘mess’ or ‘spill’. The official language is already a diagnosis.
“The situation is under operational control while the cleaning work progresses,” says the company.
Sounds reassuring, right? As if cleaning the sea were as simple as mopping a floor. Meanwhile, they have had to sit down with fishermen from Agua Dulce, Coatzacoalcos and Pajapan. Eleven cooperatives, about 300 workers watching their livelihood float in something denser than water.
The checkbook as plan B
Here comes the predictable: the Community and Environment Support Program (PACMA) will come into action with 15 million pesos. They also distributed 100 thousand liters of fuel in Pajapan. And a mobile medical unit treated 548 people.
All very measurable, very quantifiable. Nice numbers for a report. What is not so easily measured is how long it takes a coastal ecosystem to recover. Or how many generations of fishermen will be burdened with this.
The most revealing thing is what Pemex does not say: the volume of the spill, its precise origin, the species affected. They only talk about constant monitoring and permanent surveillance. Words that sound like action but smell like containment… of information.
Memory is short, but hydrocarbons are persistent. We will see how long this ‘operational control’ lasts in the next tide.
