Indigenous and fishing communities allege environmental and health damage from Mexico’s oil industry, Digi Mart USA News (Mérida, Mexico): Representatives of Indigenous, peasant and fishing communities told federal lawmakers that they face environmental, economic and health harms from hydrocarbon extraction in their territories. They demanded urgent remediation of contaminated sites, a ban on fracking, and legal mechanisms requiring Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to repair the damage it has caused.
At the forum “Living Among Wells: Testimonies from the Territories,” convened by lawmakers and civil society organizations, residents of several oil-producing regions said that despite the revenue generated by the industry, their communities continue to face water contamination, loss of farmland, ecosystem deterioration and disruption of productive activities.
According to figures presented at the meeting, between 2008 and 2023 Pemex affected more than 777 sites in Mexico, and only 14% of them have received effective attention or remediation. Alejandra Jiménez of the organization CORASON said Veracruz leads the national list with 344 contaminated sites, followed by Tamaulipas with 135 and Tabasco with 64.
Nearly four in ten sites affected by Pemex are therefore located in Veracruz, according to the data presented. The data also indicated that the company takes an average of four years to remediate a contaminated site.
Community representatives from Totonacapan in Veracruz said abandoned or poorly maintained oil infrastructure continues to cause hydrocarbon and gas leaks, and that spills have contaminated plots of land, springs and streams used by residents. Fermina, a resident of El Remolino in Papantla, said some families live only 50 to 100 meters from oil wells and that during the rainy season pollutants reach water bodies, harming wildlife and posing health risks.
She also said communities were not consulted before oil extraction began in their territories and face economic and administrative obstacles in reporting damage.
Maximina García of Reforma Escolín said emissions from the wells produce intense odors and worry families. She reported cases of childhood cancer and congenital malformations that residents associate with hydrocarbon exposure, although no medical studies establishing a causal link were presented at the forum.
In Ojital Viejo, Puxkgo Romualdo Luna said oil activity has transformed community life over the past six decades, affecting traditional practices such as milpa farming and the use of medicinal plants.
One case cited at the forum was the fire at exploratory well Krem-1 in Las Choapas, Veracruz. According to the information presented, an explosion on March 5, 2026 triggered a fire that burned for five months and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate.
The data presented indicated that approximately 252 million cubic meters of gas were burned during that period, an amount equivalent to more than one-third of Mexican households’ annual dry gas consumption.
José María Robles, a resident of the Aquiles Serdán ejido, said the medical care provided to affected people was insufficient, as health caravans were limited mainly to distributing basic medicines. “They did not bother to conduct blood or toxicology tests on the people to find out whether exposure to the uninterrupted burning of so much gas for five months had caused any illness,” he said.
Fishing communities warned that the impacts of the oil industry are not limited to land but also reach the marine, lagoon and coastal ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico. Nancy Liseth Ochoa, a third-generation fisher from Las Barrancas in Alvarado, Veracruz, said hydrocarbon spills threaten artisanal fishing, on which many families depend economically.
She said contamination affects the ecosystems that provide their food and income, while coastal communities also face climate-related threats such as erosion and land loss. She questioned whether new extractive projects and hydraulic fracturing could be authorized without environmental assessments that consider cumulative impacts on the territories.
Among the proposals presented, lawmakers and civil society organizations called for amending Article 16 of the Mexican Petroleum Fund Law to include remediation of contaminated sites among the activities that may be financed with oil revenues. A bill was announced for formal submission to the Chamber of Deputies in the coming days.
Proposals also included changes to environmental liability legislation to explicitly set out Pemex and contractor obligations for repairing damage.
Demands also included strengthening oversight by the Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment (ASEA), setting strict deadlines for responding to environmental emergencies, avoiding new oil permits in affected regions, and recognizing cultural damage to Indigenous peoples. Participants also requested the creation of a working group within the Chamber of Deputies to monitor community complaints and authorities’ commitments.
The forum was convened by federal lawmakers and the organizations Engenera, Oceana, CORASON and the Alianza Mexicana Contra el Fracking. Communities insisted that the economic benefits of oil extraction cannot remain separated from its social and environmental costs, particularly in territories where contamination has compromised access to water, food production and traditional fishing.
