'Pirates' rob, beat oil rig workers
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Five Mexican oil workers were robbed and beaten by gun-toting “pirates” on a rig Feb. 14 in the Bay of Campeche, the state-run oil company workers union said.
“Our peers who were threatened and assaulted by pirates at the Zaap Delta platform are back in (the port of) Ciudad del Carmen,” Local 47 of the Union of Petroleum Workers of the Republic of Mexico (STPRM) reported on social media on Saturday. “They are undergoing the corresponding medical evaluations.”
Local news media reported that armed men boarded two oil rigs last Thursday and Friday, beating two workers, taking cash, cellphones and other valuables from everyone onboard and stealing oxygen tanks and tools.
The government workers’ union shared photos on social media of five orange-clad men walking away from the port and two of them getting into an ambulance.
There was no word from the Campeche Attorney General’s Office on any arrests.
According to Oil & Gas Magazine, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) and private companies drilling in the Bay of Campeche and off the coasts of Yucatan and Tabasco were victimized by criminals who approached on boats 277 times in a 4.5-year span beginning in 2018.
Milenio reported shots have been fired by pirates in previous robbery attempts.
