TIJUANA – Gasoline stations spent most of yesterday without diesel, forcing truck drivers to continue to hunt for the fuel across the region.
Pemex, Mexico's national oil company, continued to ration the amount itwas supplying stations, which sold out within a matter of hours.
The shortage has extended to the state capital of Mexicali, where an organization of cargo drivers, including those from the two largest unions, threatened to stage a sit-in at the Pemex plant there, two daily newspapers reported.
One of the drivers in Tijuana that spent yesterday searching for diesel was Benito Sánchez, 43, who said he went to all the stations in the Otay and downtown areas without luck.
It was only at a gas station in the La Mesa district, about three blocks from the Caliente racetrack, where he was able to buy about $100 worth of fuel.
That was enough for him to be able to transport his shipment of tomatoes and chiles morrones from Tijuana to Carlsbad, a trip he makes three times a week working for the binational firm Transportes VGS.
When he asked what he expected on his next trip to California, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “The same as today.”
Hundreds of truck drivers, called “fleteros,” who charge per trip to transport products to the United States and who pay their own fuel, are facing the same situation.
This latest diesel crisis in the region began last Monday.
According to shift managers and supervisors at the stations, Pemex is only supplying stations between 5,260 to 10,525 gallons of diesel per day, less than their usual allotment, which sells in six hours or less.
Some private companies that need to move their goods are stockpiling the fuel, buying between 790 to 1,315 gallons at a time after their employees wait up to six hours in line at gas stations.
When truck drivers such as Sánchez or public-transit conductors, who get paid per trip, get to the stations, they simply that the diesel has sold out.
Jesús Domínguez Diarte, 29, called himself a “well-prepared driver.” On Saturday afternoon he bought for $1,000 a total of 526 gallons of diesel, which he stored in four tanks on his truck.
He had waited nearly five hours at a station in the Otay district because he had been assured that a Pemex tanker would arrive and that he would be sold that amount. The tanker indeed arrived and he was able to buy the diesel he wanted.
Diarte's job is to transport containers of electronic goods from Tijuana to the Port of Long Beach. He bought enough fuel to assure him a week of work.
According to the federal agency for the protection of consumers, known by its acronym PROFECO, stations are prohibited from limiting sale of diesel.
So customers can buy as much of the fuel as they want, up to 1,316 gallons, if the station has it. And many truck conductors who drive on both sides of the border are taking advantage of this situation.
The root of the problem is that gasoline is heavily subsidized in Mexico, and is currently more than 50 percent more economical than in the United States.
The increased demand from California motorists, from Tijuana residents who work in San Diego County, and, most recently, from private companies stockpiling the scarce supplies has created a diesel crisis that shows now signs of easing.
Pemex has commented little publicly, only noting that it has not been able distribute diesel rapidly enough to keep up with the increased demand.
Members of the organization of drivers called Transportistas de Mexicali have threatened a protest at the Pemex plant in that city if there's no quicksolution.
Some 50 percent of the members of this organization, which includes workers from the two most powerful unions in Mexico, are being affected by the diesel shortage, according reports in two Baja California newsapers on Sunday.
Omar Millán González is a contributor to The Union-Tribune's Spanish-language newspaper Enlace.
Omar Millan Gonzalez is a contributor to The Union-Tribune's Spanish-language newspaper Enlace.
