Mexicans, who took to the streets at the start of this week to protest a sharp spike in fuel prices, have now created a critical situation in at least three states, according to state oil giant Pemex.

Protesters, Pemex said, have taken to blocking fuel storage terminals, which led to fuel distribution problems in the states of Durango, Chihuahua, and Morelos. Pemex warned that if the blockades remain, the operations of nearby airports can be affected, too.

The price increases, between 14 and 20 percent, were implemented by President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government in a bid to advance the deregulation of the oil market in the country and remove Pemex from its monopoly position.

Another part of the market liberalization effort, which took effect last year, was inviting foreign companies to partake in the exploration and exploitation of Mexican oil and gas deposits and the right to then produce and import fuel in the country.

However, Pena Nieto had promised that gas prices for end-consumers will be lower, not higher, and that the price liberalization will be gradual, taking place over the course of the year. On top if this, as the Los Angeles Times notes, the timing of the price hike is not ideal.

The end of December/start of January is peak driving season in Mexico, global oil prices are rising, and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is threatening its southern neighbor with pulling out of trade agreements and introducing tariffs on Mexican goods. In addition, the local currency is dropping against the greenback and inflation is rising.

According to some, to raise gas prices at such a moment represents the government’s urgent need for fresh cash, now more than ever, as Ford quit plans to build a US$1.6-billion plant in Mexico, deciding on a lower investment on its home turf, in Michigan.
• None The End Of The Rally? Oil Reverses, Natural Gas Trounced
• None Will 2017 Be Musk’s Most Important Year?</s>A man urges fellow demonstrators to calm down as they vandalise the Government Palace during a protest against the rising prices of gasoline enforced by the Mexican government, at the Macroplaza in Monterrey, Mexico. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexicans angry over a double-digit hike in gasoline prices looted stores and blockaded roads on Wednesday, prompting over 250 arrests amid escalating unrest over the rising cost of living in Latin America’s second biggest economy.

Twenty-three stores were sacked and 27 blockades put up in Mexico City, Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said, days after the government raised gasoline costs by 14 to 20 percent, outraging Mexicans already battling rising inflation and a weak currency.

Mexican retailers’ association ANTAD urged federal and state authorities to intervene quickly, saying 79 stores had been sacked and 170 forcibly closed due to blockades.

Deputy interior Minister Rene Juarez said over 250 people had been arrested for vandalism and that federal authorities were working with security officials in Mexico City and the nearby states of Mexico and Hidalgo to address the unrest.

“These acts are outside the law and have nothing to do with peaceful protest nor freedom of expression,” Juarez said in a press conference late on Wednesday.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said earlier on Wednesday that the price spike that took effect on Jan. 1 was a “responsible” measure that the government took in line with international oil prices.

The hike is part of a gradual, year-long price liberalization the Pena Nieto administration has promised to implement this year.

State oil company Pemex said on Tuesday that blockades of fuel storage terminals by protesters had led to a “critical situation” in at least three Mexican states.</s>Looting, Riots In Mexico Spiral Out Of Control Over 20% Gas Hike; Hundreds Arrested

Four days after the first sporadic protests emerged in Mexico City, following the infamous “gasolinazo”, or mandatory 15%-20% increase in Mexican gas prices which went into effect on January 1, the mood across the country has significantly deteriorated, with hundreds of demonstrators blocking highways, snarling traffic, raiding gas stations, jeopardizing critical supplies, and looting stores as angry but impotent motorists lashed out at the price surge, which is only going to get worse as inflation spikes even more following the record plunge in the Mexican Peso.



 Residents steal fuel and diesel from a gas station in Veracruz state

As a reminder, the price of oil rose Sunday by as high as 20.1% to 88 cents per liter, with diesel at 83 cents — the equivalent of 12 days of a minimum wage to fill a tank of gas – compared to the U.S.’s seven hours — and the price ceiling will be adjusted daily starting Feb. 18, before letting supply and demand determine them in March.

The unrest has caused some gas stations to close altogether. Antonio Caballero, who heads a network of 800 gas stations, said at a press conference this week he will temporarily close any filling station threatened by violent protesters. According to unconfirmed reports, even the local drug cartels warned ahead of the price hike they would burn down gas stations should the price increase come into effect.

However, as tends to happen during mass civil disturbances, it’s not just gas stations that are being targeted. Some protesters have used the gasolinazo as an excuse to loot supermarkets and other stores in several states.

A man runs with toys as a store is ransacked by a crowd in the port of Veracruz,

 Mexico after gas price hikes rage out of control

As of Thursday morning, 250 stores had been looted and 170 were closed or blockaded in all of Mexico, according to the National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores.

At least 430 protesters were detained on charges of vandalism, including four police officers according to El Universal.



 Protesters block the entrance to a Pemex gas station as they burn tires during a

 protest against the rising prices of gasoline

The unrest ‘resulting in the theft of merchandise put at risk the lives of clients and workers in the stores, primarily in Mexico State, Michoacan, Hidalgo and Mexico City,’ the statement said.



 Suspects are detained by navy police after a store was ransacked by a crowd in

 the port of Veracruz during gasoline price protests

In the Gulf coast city of Veracruz, store guards were overrun Wednesday

 by crowds who carried off clothing, food, washing machines, televisions,

 DVD players and refrigerators; 50 establishments including convenience stores, supermarkets and big-box outlets suffered looting, according to a preliminary count by the local chamber of commerce.



 A group of people grabs toys as a store is ransacked by a crowd in the port of 

 Veracruz, Mexico after frustrations over a sharp gas price hike erupt into violence

Store guards were overrun by crowds who carried off clothing, food, washing machines, televisions, DVD players and refrigerators

Extra police patrols were deployed, and at least 14 people were detained, the state government reported. At one supermarket officers fired into the air to disperse the multitudes.

According to Fusion, adding to the chaos on the streets is a wave of unconfirmed news and threats on social media perpetuating rumors about a curfew on Wednesday, pushing some businesses to temporarily close two days before Mexico’s Día de Reyes, a religious holiday that normally has parents flocking to stores to buy toys for their kids.



 People form a human chain to block access to a gas station in Mexico City

The state-owned oil company Pemex said Tuesday that blockades of fuel terminals in the states of Chihuahua, Morelos and Durango had caused a “critical situation” in distributing fuel to gas stations there. It said that if the blockades continued, it could interrupt operations at airports in Chihuahua and Baja California.

Mexicans’ collective anger over the situation is being directed mostly at President Enrique Peña Nieto, who in 2015 had promised that country’s frequent pump price hikes would end with his much-touted finance and energy reform plans. However, as a result of the plunge in oil prices , the long-awaited liberalization of the country’s energy sector which would have led to lower prices, the promised relief at the pump has yet to materialize.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, president Nieto called the gas price hike “painful” yet “inevitable.”

“I call society to listen to the reasons for taking this decision, which, without having been made, I must say, would have led to more painful effects and consequences,” he said Wednesday after several days of notable silence. He added that he understands the anger of Mexicans and did not want to make the “painful, difficult and inevitable” move, but had to.

He told Mexicans Wednesday to accept the dramatic hike in gas prices as a necessary move, to the anger of “gasolinazo” protesters, who reiterated their call to take down the country’s most unpopular president on record.

Demonstrators stormed several government buildings on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of Nieto and sympathetic state governors who have promoted the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s neoliberal reforms that have included privatizing the national oil company Pemex. Pena Nieto had promised to lower gas prices in his campaign, but they have kept rising since he took office.

A series of actions, including boycotts, petition signing, meetings, assemblies and civil disobedience are planned for the week, as the prologue to a national march next week. As of earlier this week, tens of thousands have already participated in roadblocks and seized, looted and vandalized gas stations, prompting 400 stations to close and affecting the operations of airports and bus stations.

The tweet below lays out a “map of peaceful protests against gasolinazo. We have the right to protest.”

Meanwhile, the blowback against the unpopular price hike is spreading to the political class. Pemex has requested that state governors help open access to stations to continue business, but several governors have already come out against the hike. The governor of Chihuahua, Javier Corral, said he would not deploy forces to quell the protest, which he supports, and Aristoteles Sandoval of Jalisco, who is a member of the PRI, said Mexicans have a right to be angry. Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes said he expects the rise to mostly affect the poor and threaten political stability, lamenting that Peña Nieto did not consult governors before implementing the measure.

Taxes represent 44 percent of the price of gasoline, tweeted Guadalajara Mayor Enrique Alfaro, adding to a trending hashtag, #ReversaAlGasolinazo, to reverse the measure by lowering taxes.

Several media and politicians, including Peña Nieto, have denounced the protests as violent, which organizers insist is a mischaracterization of the peaceful actions, which aim to redistribute oil for free or at significantly reduced prices. Many extrapolated their opposition as opposition also to violence, corruption and impunity in the country, with which they hope to create a wider front against Peña Nieto’s administration and business-as-usual in traditionally authoritarian Mexican politics.

“The history of our country is stained with big and deep social problems without resolution,” wrote feminist group MujerEs YA!, “where violence and impunity have marked the path of daily life, until the point of voracious alienation that plays between indifference and immobility, which uses whatever measure to convince the public of its uselessness, of its drowned inert voice, accustomed to the toxic, a population that merits little, because it demands little, because it naturalizes its own death.”

But the worst is yet to come. According to increasingly more analysts, who initially were silent on the topic, the price increase will raise the price of basic goods, provoke unemployment, inflation, economic stagnation and potentially economic contraction and even recession.</s>CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO - A 20 percent gas price hike has sparked anger across Mexico this week leading to protests, highway blockades and looting of stores in some regions. Protesters briefly stopped traffic on a busy international bridge linking El Paso and Juarez.

"There's a public uprising," said Pablo Olvera, a motorist at a gas station in Ciudad Juarez. The usually busy Pemex station was empty and eerily quiet.

"I don't have enough to fill up," said Olvera, a preacher and married father of two children. He handed the attendant $100 pesos, the equivalent of $4.71 in dollars.

Some gas stations ran out of fuel because protesters blocked highways preventing tanker trucks from reaching their destinations.

Riots left at least four dead and police arrested hundreds, according to Mexican authorities. The gas price hike took effect with the new year as Mexico deregulated an energy sector dominated by the government oil monopoly Pemex. The move included cutting subsides as Mexico opens its energy sector to private investment. The government said prices will go down as competition increases.</s>MEXICO CITY - Protests and looting fuelled by anger over gasoline price hikes 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 the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting this week forced many stores and businesses to close and threatened supplies of basic goods and fuel. The scenes of mass lootings came as parents faced the last shopping day to get presents for their children before the Jan. 6 Epiphany or Three Kings Day holiday.

Two people were found dead amid looting in the port city of Veracruz but an official with the state prosecutor said late Thursday that the killers had not yet been identified. The official was not authorized to talk to the press and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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 per cent fuel price hike announced over the weekend as part of a government deregulation of the energy sector.

While acknowledging the anger, President Enrique Pena Nieto said Thursday he would forge ahead anyway 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," Pena 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."

Pena Nieto said the other big challenge for Mexico in 2017 was to "build a positive relationship with the new U.S. administration," something he said would be done with Mexico's "unbreakable dignity."

While looting calmed somewhat 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 Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes Linares ventured out 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 ($23.25). Yunes later said that wasn't an incentive to stop looting, but rather offered as assistance to help single mothers buy holiday gifts.

In Mexico State, which borders Mexico City, 529 people had been detained as suspected looters. Four state police officers were fired and detained after they were caught on video taking some looted items and putting them in their patrol vehicles. The state government said the looting had quieted down Thursday. But video of the Wednesday disturbances showed riot-like scenes of people streaming out of stores carrying flat-screen TVs and other items.

Officials claimed many of the lootings incidents were promoted through social media.

With blockades affecting everything from gas distribution terminals, seaports and highways to shopping centres and gas stations, the Communications and Transport Department announced it would cancel permits for any truckers who block roads.

Truck and taxi drivers have been among the most affected by the fuel price increases, which took effect as the government ends regulated prices for gasoline and diesel, which it says represented subsidies that unduly benefited wealthier Mexicans.

The change boosted the average price for a litre of premium gasoline to 17.79 pesos (about 90 cents). That makes 4 litres, or about a gallon, equal to nearly as much as Mexico's just raised minimum wage for a day's work - 80 pesos (about $4).

The National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores of Mexico has said in a statement that more than 79 stores had been 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 big-box outlets suffered looting, according to a preliminary count by the local chamber of commerce.</s>XALAPA, Mexico (AP) — Protests over a sharp gasoline price hike erupted into looting of gas stations and stores in various parts of Mexico on Wednesday, with dozens of businesses reportedly sacked.

Protesters also continued to block highways, burn tires and seize gas stations, snarling traffic and jeopardizing fuel supplies across the country.

The National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores of Mexico said in a statement that 79 stores had been looted and 170 were closed or blockaded in central Mexico, including the capital.

The unrest “resulting in the theft of merchandise put at risk the lives of clients and workers in the stores, primarily in Mexico State, Michoacan, Hidalgo and Mexico City,” the statement said.

In the Gulf coast city of Veracruz, 50 establishments including convenience stores, supermarkets and big-box outlets suffered looting, according to a preliminary count by the local chamber of commerce.

Store guards were overrun by crowds who carried off clothing, food, washing machines, televisions, DVD players and refrigerators.

Extra police patrols were deployed, and at least 14 people were detained, the state government reported. At one supermarket officers fired into the air to disperse the multitudes.

Earlier in the day, President Enrique Pena Nieto took to the airwaves to defend his unpopular gasoline deregulation measure that resulted in price hikes of up to 20 percent over the weekend.

The increases took effect as the government ends regulated prices for gasoline and diesel, which it says represented subsidies that unduly benefited wealthier Mexicans.

The change boosted the average price for a liter of premium gasoline to 17.79 pesos (about 90 cents). That makes 4 liters, or about a gallon, equal to nearly as much as Mexico’s just raised minimum wage for a day’s work — 80 pesos (about $4).

Pena Nieto said he would try to help groups hit hard by the increases, in an apparent reference to bus, truck and taxi drivers.

“I understand the anger and irritation felt by the general public,” Pena Nieto said, saying that “this is an action that nobody would want to take.”

“If this decision had not been taken, the effects and consequences would have been far more painful,” he added.

The farm activist group El Barzon said that even with tax breaks or government support for truck drivers, “the wave of anger and discontent among Mexicans cannot be held back.”

The state-owned oil company Pemex said Tuesday that blockades of fuel terminals in the states of Chihuahua, Morelos and Durango had caused a “critical situation” in distributing fuel to gas stations there.

It said that if the blockades continued, it could interrupt operations at airports in Chihuahua and Baja California.

The country’s industrial chamber, known as Concamin, said that “impeding production and commerce is not the best way to handle the increase in fuel prices.”</s>A hefty government gas price hike is fueling protests, looting and road blockades in Mexico.

Authorities arrested more than 250 people for robbery and acts of vandalism around the country this week, officials said.

Some protests have been peaceful.

But in other parts of the country, people ransacked stores.

Elsewhere, they clamored to get gas.

Officials announced in December that they were planning to increase gas prices, in some cases more than 20%. President Enrique Peña Nieto says the increase is a “responsible measure for the stability of the economy.”

Some protesters say their frustration with the government is about much more than sticker shock. Peña Nieto has faced criticism for his handling of the country’s drug war, alleged corruption in his administration and his decision to meet with Donald Trump during the US presidential campaign.

This is a time of year when Mexicans normally gear up to celebrate Three Kings Day, when children traditionally receive holiday gifts. But the sudden gas price hike is dampening the mood in a country where the economy is already struggling.

The Mexican peso — riding a tough year in 2016 — plummeted after Trump’s election.</s>Mexicans are getting an early start to the New Year by taking to the streets and social media to protest a double-digit gas price hike known as el gasolinazo. Hundreds of demonstrators are blocking highways, raiding gas stations, and looting stores as pump prices surge by 15-20% across the country.

The unrest has caused some gas stations to close altogether. Antonio Caballero, who heads a network of 800 gas stations, said at a press conference this week he will temporarily close any filling station threatened by violent protesters.</s>Sometimes-violent protests and looting over gasoline price hikes in Mexico are continuing and officials say that so far they've left one policeman dead and five injured, 300 stores looted and over 600 people arrested.

The country's business chambers says the combination of highway, port and terminal blockades and looting have forced many stores and businesses to close and threaten supplies of basic goods and fuel.

Mexicans were enraged by the 20-percent fuel price hike announced over the weekend as part of a government deregulation effort.

Since then, protesters have blockaded highways and gas stations and looting has broken out in some places.

Authorities said Thursday that one policeman was run over and killed and another seriously injured when they tried to stop robberies from a gas station in Mexico City.</s>MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's president defended his unpopular move to hike gasoline prices 20 percent as protesters continued to block highways and seize gas stations across the country Wednesday.

Some people stole fuel from besieged gas stations, and a business group reported outbreaks of looting had hit retail stores amid the unrest.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said he will try to help groups hit hard by the increases in an apparent reference to bus, truck and taxi drivers.

The increases took effect over the weekend as the government ends regulated prices for gasoline and diesel, which it says represented subsidies that unduly benefited wealthier Mexicans.

"I understand the anger and irritation felt by the general public," Pena Nieto said, adding that "this is an action that nobody would want to take."

But, he added, "If this decision had not been taken, the effects and consequences would have been far more painful."

Protesters have blockaded highways and gas stations across Mexico, snarling traffic and endangering the country's fuel supplies.

The National Association of Self-Service and Department Stores of Mexico said in a statement that 79 stores had seen looting and 170 were closed or blockaded in central Mexico, including the capital, during the unrest over the gasoline price hike.

"In addition to the problem of supply, there have been blockades of stores — more than 170 — and, even more seriously, looting — of 79 stores — that besides resulting in the theft of merchandise put at risk the lives of clients and workers in the stores, primarily in Mexico State, Michoacan, Hidalgo and Mexico City."

The farm activist group El Barzon said that even with tax breaks or government support for truck drivers, "the wave of anger and discontent among Mexicans cannot be held back."

The state-owned oil company Pemex said Tuesday that blockades of fuel terminals in the states of Chihuahua, Morelos and Durango had caused a "critical situation" in distributing fuel to gas stations there.

It said that if the blockades continued, it could interrupt operations at airports in Chihuahua and Baja California.

The country's industrial chamber, known as Concamin, said that "impeding production and commerce is not the best way to handle the increase in fuel prices."
Following a start-of-year hike to the price of gas, widespread riots and looting mostly targeting gas stations, supermarkets and department stores take place in several cities in Mexico. Over 250 people are said to have been arrested so far while blockades to PEMEX installations potentially lead to critical situations in some states.