The businessman Carlos Slim has described the accident on line 12 of the Mexico City subway as a disgrace, which collapsed on May 3 and left at least 26 dead and 79 wounded.
Slim made statements to the media after leaving a meeting with the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, at the National Palace, in which he offered that his company would rehabilitate the section he built of this infrastructure. “What I raised to him is that, regardless of everything, our interest in rehabilitate as soon as possible the section we did (…). It’s important so that people can keep using it, “he said.
The businessman defended that the construction of line 12 has no hidden defects, arguing that there were withstood earthquakes of more than six degrees intensity. He claimed to be convinced that the work carried out by his company does not have any origin problem, as shown by the fact that it has been used by 400,000 people a day and 144 million a year, in his opinion.
“You have to investigate what happened, so that after 10 years this would happen … Yes, it’s a disgrace, but what I’m telling you is that we are convinced that originally it had no problemSlim remarked.
A tragedy under investigation
The day after the tragedy, the Head of Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced an external expert opinion to find out the causes of the accident, while the Prosecutor’s Office initiated an investigation for wrongful death and property damage.
From the beginning, the hypothesis that there was a failure in the metallic structures of the installation was handled. Also, for years, users and employees reported obvious damage in the construction. The investment in the work doubled its initial budget, costing more than 26,000 million pesos (about 1,300 million dollars), and the suspicions of irregularities were permanent.
Months after its inauguration, sections began to be temporarily closed before the deficiencies detected, and in 2015 the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District concluded that crimes had been committed of improper payments, improper use of public exercise and improper exercise of powers. In addition, since 2008 the Superior Audit of the Federation documented that “the basic engineering studies had deficiencies.”
At present, the Norwegian firm DKV is carrying out an external expertise to determine the reasons for the accident. The first preliminary report found deficiencies in the construction process. The following preliminary studies will be presented on July 14 and August 30.
