Mexico's new government knew a pipeline was leaking but did not act for hours before a blast killed at least 85 people, a minister said on Sunday, increasing scrutiny of a push to stop fuel theft seen as the president's first crackdown on crime.
Mexico's state oil firm, Pemex, did not close the valve at a leaking gasoline pipeline when first notified because it was not initially thought to be an "important" leak, Mexico's security minister said on Sunday.
The number of people who died from a gasoline pipeline explosion in central Mexico has risen to 85, Mexico's health minister said on Sunday.
Nearly a month after Mexico's new president launched an ambitious plan to stamp out growing fuel theft, the strategy meant to crush corruption and organized crime is under heightened scrutiny.
Mexico's health minister said on Sunday that the number of people killed in a gasoline pipeline explosion has risen to 79.
At least 73 people were killed after a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico, authorities said on Saturday, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the army despite its failure to clear the site before the blast.
The governor of Mexico's Hidalgo state, Omar Fayad, said on Saturday that 66 people had been killed and 76 injured in a pipeline explosion on Friday evening.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to step up efforts to stamp out fuel theft on Saturday after an explosion at a pipeline killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more.
Mexico's Senate on Friday voted an ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to serve for nine years as the powerful new independent top prosecutor of the country, sparking immediate criticism that the role would remain politicized.
A former mistress of accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman told jurors in his U.S. trial on Thursday she was "traumatized" after a harrowing 2014 escape from one of his safehouses with Mexican marines in hot pursuit.
Turkey is ready to take over security in Syria's Manbij, where four U.S. citizens died in an Islamic State-claimed bombing last week, President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Sunday, the Turkish presidency said.