Negligence and poor planning by state, city and government oil company officials were behind the sewer-line blasts that killed 191 people in Mexico's second-biggest city, a federal probe has concluded.
Before dawn Monday, seven officials were taken to the Jalisco State Penitentiary outside Guadalajara where they had been ordered detained by a judge.The four Pemex and three municipal water and sewer officials were among 11 officials sought for questioning pending determination by a judge on whether they should be charged with negligent homicide.
Investigators say the officials were directly responsible for the disaster, which they found occurred after gasoline leaked for several weeks from a pipeline owned by Pemex, the government oil monopoly.
An eighth official, the Jalisco state secretary for urban development Aristeo Mejia, suffered a heart attack and was taken to the Mexican-American hospital. Guadalajara's mayor is seeking an injunction to stay his detention, and there was no news Monday on the other two officials.
Attorney General Ignacio Morales Lechuga on Sunday ordered the officials to appear before a magistrate.
Morales Lechuga said the official negligence stemmed from a failure to evacuate residents after strong gasoline fumes were reported coming from sewers, and from the lack of swift action to repair the problem.
Pemex has denied responsibility but on Sunday offered more than $30 million to help rebuild the devastated working-class neighborhood.
Wednesday's blasts injured 1,470 people, damaged or destroyed 1,422 homes, 450 businesses and 600 vehicles, and gouged trenches in five miles of streets, according to the probe, whose results were detailed by Morales Lechuga.
Residents of the stricken Reforma neighborhood were skeptical about whether justice will be done.
"They have now blamed some people," said Fausto Rojas Ramirez, a shopowner in the district. "We will have to wait and see if anyone will be punished."