Gold Line collapse seen from a drone (Instagram photo).

Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. On Monday, an overpass on the Golden Line of the Mexico City subway collapsed plunging a packed train 50 feet to the ground , killing at least 24 people and injuring many others, including children. The crash occurred at 10:22 p.m. on one of the newest stretches of track in the subway system, the second largest subway system in the hemisphere.  

Critics immediately charged that it was no accident, but the result of shoddy construction, corruption, and years of delayed maintenance. The trending hashtag now in signs and graffiti at the collapse site  summarizes the critics: 

 #NoFueAccidenteFueNegliencia

Problems began almost immediately on Line 12.  Beginning in  the month the line was inaugurated there were 60 mechanical failures on trains or on tracks causing trains to slow down over elevated stretches of track because of possible derailments. It took a year before the city temporarily shut down part of the line for repairs.

When an earthquake struck Mexico City in 2017,  subway managers reported  “a structural fault” in one of the metro line’s supporting columns. Workers operating and maintaining the subway system had issued over a dozen complaints to transport authorities over the years, which they said were all ignored, and some workers who complained – including a representative of the  subway workers union – were fired.

In 2018 a Master Plan for the subway system revealed substantial backlogs in repairs and maintenance of tracks and trains and warned that the Golden Line could see derailments unless major repairs were undertaken. It is not clear if the recommended work was done.

Finger pointing is now reaching a fever pitch because the collapse affects three of the most powerful politicians in Mexico: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador,  Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, and former mayor/now Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.  Ebrard oversaw the construction by a consortium of CARSO Infraestructura y Construccion (CCICSA), Mexico’s Grupo ICA, and the Mexican unit of France’s Alstom SA . 

President  Lopez Obrador is accused of shortchanging the subway system with his austerity program while he spent money on pet projects like a new airport and a train in southern Mexico.   Lopez Obrador rejected the accusation from employers’ association Coparmex, accusing it of being part of his political opposition.

«The metro maintenance has a sufficient budget. It’s authorized by Mexico City’s legislative assembly. What does that have to do with austerity?»  he said.

Ebrard came under fire almost immediately for the over-budget construction of the $2  billion line built during his administration for being fraught with structural problems  amid  warnings of potential accidents.  In 2018,  Senators from PRI said in an official document that the Golden Line was a “symbol of the corruption and the misuse of public resources that prevailed during that (Ebrard) administration.”  

Ebrard said that his own responsibility for the project ended in 2013 and that subsequent administrations were responsible for the operation of the subway,  claiming that the accusations against him are politically motivated. He has promised to cooperate fully with the investigation into the accident.   

Complaints  about the subway system  have also been aimed at Mayor Sheinbaum for years. In 2019, accidents caused by mechanical problems on the escalators taking people to and from stations caused several injuries.  Then, in March of last year one person was killed and at least 41 others were injured when two subway trains collided on the same track. A fire this January at  the subway’s headquarters killed a  police officer and sent 30 other people to hospital.

However, Sheinbaum, a close ally of AMLO and a strong supporter of his austerity program, has denied that the cuts in spending contributed to the collapse. 

She said it appeared a girder had buckled in an overpass supporting column, which she said was inspected last year. At a later news conference, she said the collapse seemed to indicate a «structural failure”,  adding that it is “not possible to say categorically, but it seems this is what happened.» 

 She joined Ebrard at a press conference, promising full cooperation with the investigation, which is underway by prosecutors and a Norwegian Engineering firm.

The damage will take months to repair and the political fallout will reverberate until at least the next election.  The lost and shattered lives will never be repaired.  

Compiled from sources including YouTube, the New York Times, the BBC, The Washington Post, El Pais, the Los Angeles Times, and AFP.com