The San Andrés pipeline, Poza Rica, Mexico.
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In a small office at the run-down hotel his family owns in Poza Rica, Mexico, Guillermo Salinas recalls how his country’s oil dreams imploded, along with many of his own hopes for a brighter future. A light flickers overhead. The air smells of chlorine, though hardly anyone uses the hotel’s blue-tiled pool anymore.
On this muggy day in September, some of the few guests at the once-thriving Hotel Salinas are a dozen or so federal police sent to the area to protect pipelines from thieves who siphon off gasoline to sell on the black market. Having federales as paying customers is a mixed blessing: The sight of a bunch of guys in the lobby with rifles slung over their shoulders doesn’t exactly help lure tourists.