Mexico’s Arrest of Oil Union Chief Spurs Panic Buying at Gas Stations

Mexican motorists jammed gas stations in panic buying and armed soldiers guarded most of the nation’s refineries against possible sabotage Wednesday after the violent arrest of the leader of the oil workers union on arms smuggling charges.

The arrest of the powerful union chief, Joaquin Hernandez Galicia, the day before provoked early morning work stoppages and slowdowns Wednesday at several of the state oil company’s installations, but most of the workers apparently were back on the job after receiving orders from union leaders meeting in Mexico City.

The government news agency Notimex reported that the navy was protecting coastal installations and oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico. Reporters in Campeche state said military airplanes were circling the 36 offshore drilling platforms in Campeche Sound.

The government had feared violence by some of the nearly 200,000 oil workers who are considered to be fiercely loyal to Hernandez Galicia, but there were no reports of disturbances.

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari met privately with Fidel Velasquez, the leader of the Mexican Workers Congress, the umbrella group for organized labor in the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or the PRI. The oil workers union is a key sector of the congress.

The president is scheduled to meet today with the congress’ entire executive committee.

Hernandez Galicia, known as La Quina, is the popular and allegedly corrupt power behind the union in the nation’s strategic oil industry. He was detained by federal police and the army Tuesday morning at his home in Ciudad Madero in the coastal state of Tamaulipas, after a gun battle with his bodyguards that left one federal agent dead.

The attorney general’s office said 44 other people have been arrested in conjunction with the case, including the secretary general of the union, Salvador Barragan Camacho. Barragan Camacho, who turned himself over to authorities before dawn Wednesday, is in police custody at a Mexico City hospital, where he is being treated for a heart condition.

Security agents found 200 Israeli-made Uzi submachine guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition in Hernandez Galicia’s house and are charging the union leader with arms stockpiling and smuggling, the attorney general’s office added.

Government officials charge that Hernandez Galicia was conspiring to take over installations of the state oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, to destabilize the government.

An opposition member of the federal Chamber of Deputies, however, was quoted in the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada as saying he saw the army plant the guns in Hernandez Galicia’s house. Alfredo Pliego Aldana, a member of the leftist National Democratic Front, said, “I was there . . . (the army) brought the weapons in a military truck, unloaded them and took them into La Quina’s house.”

Charge by Unionists

Union officials charge that the government has framed Hernandez Galicia and other leaders in a political move to break their power and that of the union. In a simultaneous attack on Hernandez Galicia’s economic interests, the government arrested Sergio Bolanos, the businessman who is said to handle Hernandez Galicia’s business affairs. Bolanos and several of his associates are accused of evading $1.5 million in taxes.

A government spokesman who declined to be identified by name said that two of Hernandez Galicia’s bodyguards in detention told authorities that they murdered one of Hernandez Galicia’s rivals in 1983 on orders from their boss. According to the official, the bodyguards said they killed Oscar Torres Pancardo, mayor of Poza Rica in the state of Veracruz, who appeared to have died in a mysterious car wreck.

Meanwhile, soldiers surrounded several of the country’s nine refineries while troops in army jeeps escorted trucks delivering gasoline to stations throughout the country. Motorists fearing an eventual strike waited in long gas lines that clogged streets throughout the capital.

“The people are panicked and we have long lines because they think there is going to be a shortage,” said Alberto Servin, an attendant at one Pemex gas station.

Gas in Short Supply

With the high demand, some stations ran out of gas, but Pemex officials guaranteed that all stations would have gas today.

In Ciudad Madero, where the union headquarters is situated, state officials reported stores and gas stations closed and a morning demonstration in the central square by about 3,000 union members protesting “the kidnaping” of Hernandez Galicia.

“The workers are disoriented and alarmed,” said Manuel Montiel, spokesman for the state government.

By afternoon, however, the Notimex news agency reported that “hundreds of workers” had gone back to the refinery there after receiving orders from the local union leader.

In the states of Tabasco, Campeche and Oaxaca, reporters said that protesting workers returned to their jobs by midday.

In Tabasco, a local newspaper reporter said that soldiers were searching employees as they entered the 25 Pemex work sites.

Tuesday’s arrests have met with mixed reactions. Business leaders generally have lauded the move while the leftist opposition has protested the violent and allegedly illegal way in which Hernandez Galicia was detained.

At a meeting of a permanent joint committee of Congress, lawmaker Jesus Ortega of the opposition Democratic Front called the arrest a “classic example of state terror.” He said the oil union was targeted because “the government does not want an obstacle to its policy of privatizing the nation’s industries.”

President Salinas favors selling off many of the government enterprises and breaking up others.