Mexico has been seeing a staggering rise in attacks on maritime oil infrastructure. According to sources, attacks went up by 310 percent between 2016 and 2018, with this number having risen only further in 2019. The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has reported that an average of 16 attacks a month were registered between January and September 2019. According to the ITF, oil or the personal belongings of the crew are not the only items on the attackers’ shopping list. Communication equipment, navigation machinery, engines, expensive spotlights, drilling rigs, valves and pumping material have all been taken, presumably, to be sold on the black market. In response to a recent incident, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the construction of a new naval base in Dos Bocas, Tabasco, at the heart of Mexico’s oil industry. This base will serve specifically to fight piracy in Mexican waters.
