Adrián Rocha. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
On Monday night, May 3, through the surveillance cameras of Mexico City, shortly after 22:20 pm, it was announced the collapse of a convoy of Line 12 of the Collective Transport System -STC- Metro, located south of the city in the Tlahuac district, which left a balance of 23 people dead, 68 people hospitalized and 25 missing.
During the morning conference of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, reported that the incident happened between Olivo and Tezonco stations "where one of the beams of the elevated Line 12 fell".
The capital's mayor pledged to provide all medical support and care to the victims, and also said that they are in search of "an international company with certification in both Metro and structural issues to make a technical expertise and that we can get to the causes of this unfortunate incident.
This incident was not received with indifference by the users of social networks that, at the same time of the facts, recovered the publications that showed the structural failures that were notorious and had already been denounced through the networks.
Among the most frequently mentioned was a post on October 12, 2020, from a Facebook page by the name "Ciberpapeleria AZULThe "report suggests "taking precautions", since "apparently the subway structure was becoming uneven", at the height of the Tezonco station and in the presence of "personnel carrying out the relevant evaluations".
Another Twitter account, belonging to user @RPachecoMX, posted on November 14, 2016 that "the #Linea12 one day was going to fall to shit."
The construction of the mega project of just over 23 kilometers long was announced on August 8, 2007 during the government of the now Foreign Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, with a cost of 26 billion pesos was inaugurated on October 30, 2012.
However, the history of failures and allegations of corruption in the so-called "Golden Line" is not new; a year later, in 2013, nighttime preventive maintenance and leveling of the tracks were announced in several stations, which forced them to end their operation one or two hours before their usual schedule.
In 2014, the then director of the Mexico City Metro, Joel Ortega, announced the suspension of service on the elevated section of Line 12 as a matter of safety for users.
During that period of government of the then Federal District, led by Miguel Angel Mancera, it was made public that Line 12 had construction deficiencies and errors in the development of the project.
It was after the M7.1 earthquake, which hit Mexico City on September 19, 2017, when serious affectations to the "Golden Line" were recorded and caused the closure of 6 stations.
In a press conference held today outside the Metro facilities, Héctor Homero Zavala, Labor Secretary of the Mexican Union of STC Metro Workers, denounced that "this tragedy could have been avoided if the authorities had listened to the workers.
Hector also mentioned that the current director, Florencia Serranía Soto is fully aware of the failures that the station had, since, upon her arrival, she implemented a program called "Adopt a station" and many officials are aware of the problems they face.
The union secretary also explained that the workers do not do the maintenance work, but an outside company does it and the only ones who belong to the union are the inspectors and drivers: "every day my fellow inspectors and drivers go through that stretch with a vibration and a sinking".
Just on Thursday, April 29, 2021, Nahum Leal Barroso was appointed head of the Subdirección General de Mantenimiento del Metro, which had been vacant for a year.
