Could Yucatan’s recent blackouts be an act of sabotage?
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that power outages on the Yucatan Peninsula could be due more than just an accidental fire.
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) says that sugarcane crop fires were to blame when power transmitters in Campeche turned out the light to millions of customers. But AMLO smells a rat.
The possibility of sabotage is being investigated, the chief executive said Thursday in a morning press conference at the National Palace.
He explained that there are companies from which the Mexican government buys electricity. That sets up a motive for some to create disruptions in the power grid, he said.
“We do not rule it out, because the two blackouts have had to do with fires in the same places,” said López Obrador.
An energy analyst, Edgar Ocampo Telléz, told El Financiero that he blamed a gas shortage on the outages.
Ocampo, of the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), noted that that residential and commercial growth in Mérida and Cancún are straining electricity supplies in the hottest season of the year.
He predicted more blackouts, but on a schedule rather than spontaneous, to save electricity.
Both outages, occurring less than a month apart, were resolved in an hour or two.
