Mexico road fire. (Photo: Michael C. Rael)

A gas tanker has caused a fatal explosion on a Mexican highway, killing at least 19 people. The blast occurred at around 5am local time in San Pedro Xalostoc to the east of Mexico.

The explosion occurred after the tanker collided with a wall on the highway between Mexico City and Pachuca, one of the busiest routes in the country. On top of the 19 confirmed casualties, a further 36 were injured. 15 cars and 20 homes have also been damaged, according to local media.

The secretary of security, Salvador Neme, confirmed the number of fatalities via his Twitter account. “19 people have unfortunately lost their lives,” he wrote. It is reported that many of the victims are inhabitants of the surrounding houses, many of whom were asleep when the truck crashed.

Resident Carlos Gonzalez Silva, told local radio that the accident was like “a ball of fire. We opened the door and it was like fire had blown through the whole of the garden.”

The army arrived on the scene while civil defence personnel cordoned off the area shortly after the incident. According to reports, the tanker overturned on the 14km highway after colliding with a wall that divides the motorway. The driver of the truck was injured and is currently under arrest in hospital.

A similar accident occurred in 1984 killing at least 500 people. The hundreds of trucks that transport fuel everyday on the Mexico-Pachuca Highway not meet the minimum-security requirements, according to recognised authorities.

The highway is set to reopen over the next few hours.

A key witness in the ‘Candela case‘ was gravely injured in the early hours of this morning following an explosion in his house in the suburb of Moreno, in the Greater Buenos Aires. Eleven year old Candela Labrador was kidnapped on the corned of her street on 22nd August 2011, and was found dead nine days later.

The house, located on the corner of Santos Dumont and Virgen de Luján, was completely destroyed in the incident, which occurred at around 2am.

The man was taken to the Luciano de la Vega hospital, and is reported to be suffering from serious burns to 80% of his body. One witness described how his nightshirt was completely stuck to his skin.

Although officially an anonymous witness in the case, his presence in the locale was no secret. As one onlooker explained: “It is a lie that it [his identity] was confidential. Everyone knew that he was here and who he was.” He had been living in the home since a few months after the trial began.

Arousing even more suspicion is that last night the guard who is normally appointed to the house was nowhere to be seen. According to neighbour and witness Camila, “there was no one”. It was further revealed that the house had been shot at just a month ago.

The witness is said to support the theory that the young girl’s murder was part of an act of revenge against the family linked to drug trafficking; aided and abetted, presumably, by the involvement of corrupt police. The Senate also backs this theory.

Authorities suspect a gas leak was responsible for the explosion, although the possibility that an explosive device might have been responsible has not been entirely ruled out.

An explosion in the administrative building of the company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) left 25 dead and 101 injured yesterday in the capital of the country. Forty-six persons are hospitalised.

Firefighters, medical emergency workers (ERUM), Red Cross, the national army and other organisations immediately started rescue works and searches for more possible victims.

Experts of the General Attorney are analising the causes of the incident, but so far they are unknown or unpublished. A press-release on the company’s website reports, “the legal department of Pemex has already introduced corresponding denouncements to the Public Ministry.”

At the same time, President Enrique Peña Nieto assured he will personally control rescue actions. He has already visited the hospital of Pemex in Picacho and B2 building, where the explosion had taken place. He acknowledged professional work of those involved in rescue operations and afirmed again that “nobody is going to privatise Pemex or our hydrocarbons. On the contrary, we want to have the best public company in the world.”

Pemex authorities suspended all labour activities of the company “till further notice”. However, the latest press-release published at 1.18am local time says that “the company has activated its financial operations contingency system.” Additionaly, Pemex ensures that “all commitments with its financial and commercial counterparties will be met in a timely and appropriate manner.”

Ironically, the explosion happened a few hours after Carlos Murrieta, Operations Director of Pemex, had announced “we have reduced the accident rate in recent years. It is an achievement for Pemex to maintain safety indicators according to the international standards.”

Yesterday’s incident is not the first one to happen in Pemex. On 19th September 2012 a gas plant explosion killed 26 and injured 46.

A gas plant explosion in Mexico killed 26 and injured 46 in the northern state of Tamaulipas yesterday.

Seven people are still reported missing according to Juan José Suárez Coppell, chief executive of Mexican Petroleum (Pemex), the state company that runs the plant.

“We are looking through the analysis of what happened […] I don’t have any evidence that this incident was voluntary or an attack of any sort. Everything seems to indicate that this was an exceptional accident,” said Suárez Coppel at a joint press conference with Tamaulipas state governor Egidio Torre Cantú.

The explosion took place at 10:45am local time on the outskirts of Reynosa, the state’s largest city situated on the border with the United States.

It is believed the explosion was caused by an accumulation of inflammable gas in the measurement area of the plant; the ensuing fire then took close to three hours to control.

“Everything has been recorded so we will make sure there is an in-depth analysis that will be made public as soon as it is completed, we will get to the bottom of what happened,” emphasised Suárez Coppel.

All fatalities were maintenance workers of which four were Pemex employees and  22 were third party contractors. Twenty-one injured workers are expected to be discharged today, while 18 will remain in the hospital in a stable condition and seven cases are still considered critical.

There have been a number of accidents in similar Pemex facilities over the past few weeks with an explosion injuring four in a gas plant last week and a fire breaking out in another gas plant in Tamaulipas state in August.

A government report released this month showed evidence that accidents at Pemex facilities had gone up by 28% in 2011.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a fund to help victims of Saturday’s oil refinery explosion, whose death toll has now been revised up to 41, with a number still unaccounted for.

The fund of 100m bolívares (US$23m) has been put aside for reconstruction works, compensation for victims, pensions for widows and grants for the children of the deceased to study.

The fund will be jointly administered by the Venezuelan petroleum organisation, PDVSA, and the government of the state of Falcón.

Some 500 houses were affected by the explosion, with more than ten completely lost in the blast. Chávez also announced that for those who had lost their homes, 60 houses were ready for families, with a further 200 promised over the course of the next month.

The president went on to thank all the emergency workers and medical staff who had been working around the clock since the blast.

Firefighters continue to battle with the flames, although the situation is now said to be under control.

The refinery remains closed as a result of the damage caused by the blast, and that, combined with the closing of off-shore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of Tropical Storm Isaac, currently sweeping through the Caribbean, is likely to lead to a spike in the price of oil.

Venezuela experienced one of its worst oil industry related disasters in history as a huge explosion tore through the Amuay refinery on Saturday, killing 39 and injuring at least 80. Amongst those killed were 18 members of the national guard who had entered the refinery after the explosion in an attempt to rescue survivors.

The blast was so strong it threw balls of fire into the air, and ripped windows out of nearby homes, leaving the streets strewn with rubble and debris. A day after the blast, flames reaching over 30m into the air could still be seen. The explosion appears to have been caused by a natural gas leak.

President Hugo Chávez declared three days of national mourning, but said Amuay, Venezuela’s biggest refinery, and one of the biggest in the world, would be up and running again within two days, and assured the country would meet its international fuel commitments.

Amuay is part of the Paraguaná refinery complex based in Punto Fijo in western Venezuela, which also includes the Cardón refinery. Together, they process about 900,000 barrels of crude a day and 200,000 barrels of petrol.

Emergency personnel have recovered the bodies of seven people killed in a Mexican mine explosion on Wednesday in the state of Coalhuila.

“We confirm the recovery of the bodies of the seven trapped miners,” police official Francisco Martinez said in a statement on Wednesday.

“All indications are that the explosion was caused by a pocket of accumulated gas,” Martinez said.

The explosion happened in an El Progreso coal mine in Muzquiz because of a methane gas reaction. The seven people killed were all members of the same family, aged 20 to 39. The miners suffered severe burns and were trapped and crushed by falling rock.

Juan Antonio Ibarra, of the Coahuila emergency services, said the explosion happened some 75m (246ft) underground, according to the BBC news. Emergency crews had to work slowly in well-ventilated conditions to reach the victims because of the potential danger of triggering another explosion.

Methane gas explosions are an all too common occurrence in mines in Coalhuila. In 2006, 65 miners were killed at a mine in Pasta de Conchos. According to Relatives of Pasta Concho, a pressure group formed after the 2006 explosion, 30 people died in 2011 due to mine explosions in Coalhuila. They say 50,000 people work in state mines that are largely unregulated and lack necessary security and safety measures.

Mexico’s labor ministry had enacted access restrictions to the mine in Muzquizm, after inspecting the mine 16 times in 2009 and finding it lacked emergency exits. The Ministry of Labor pledged to continue inspecting across the state for high-risk mines.

An explosion in Bogotá has killed at least five people and injured 25 others, including former interior minister Fernando Londoño Hoyos.

President Juan Manuel Santos condemned the attack, confirming that Londoño Hoyos was the target was. He was travelling in the northern area of the capital with his security.

Santos also reported that Londoño is now safe and unharmed in a secure location.

“Fortunately Dr. Londoño is stable in hospital. Unfortunately his driver and police officer were killed,” said the president.

“I condemn in the strongest terms this attack. We so not understand what the purpose was, but the public can absolutely sure that the government is not going to be derailed by these terrorist acts”

Guillermo Asprilla, secretary of the government of Bogotá, confirmed that the government was offering a reward of 100 million pesos ( to anyone with information on the attackers.

Initial reports suggest that two men chased the former minister through traffic on a motorcycle, before the passenger threw an explosive device causing the explosion.

Londoño is currently working as a radio host after being dismissed from government in Colombia over corruption suspicions.

Earlier in the day, police disabled a bomb that is thought to be connected in a different area of the capital after neighbours alerted the authorities. The car which was parked close to a police station, was reportedly identified by an anonymous tip off as being left by the FARC.

An explosion at the offices of the Ministry of Work in Uruguay has caused at least eight people to be injured and the entire building to be evacuated.

The cause of the explosion has not yet been officially determined. However, according to a source from the Single National Union of Construction Workers and related employment (SUNCA), an exploding gas cylinder, which was being used by welders, is to blame.

The National Fire Service Management explained that the ground floor, currently being restored by SUNCA workers, is the “most affected” by the explosion, which caused “important structural damage”.

At the time of the blast, there were around 300 people in the building, most of them officials. The fire is already under control and when the area has cooled down experts will move in to determine its cause.

Police and firemen were called to evacuate a high school in the neighbourhood of Once this morning, after a gas leak sparked fears of an explosion.

A vehicle working on a construction site on Jujuy street nearby is said to have broken through a high-pressure underground pipeline while clearing rubble on the ground.

“[The vehicle] clipped the gas line… and gas started to escape” – Samuel Zisterman, the architect responsible for the construction site, told the press. Although, according to him, “it was an exaggerated scare.”

Zisterman suspects that the line was an illegal connection, as Metrogas has no record of it on their system.

Police sources have now confirmed that the leak is under control, although the gas supply to the area currently remains cut off to prevent more gas escaping.