Mexico City.- El Palmar and San Sebastián de las Barrancas are towns in Querétaro that, about 77 kilometers away from each other, share a peculiar main economy: the sale of beer… and huachicol.
And the National Guard, not even its lights.
In El Palmar, located at the entrance to the Sierra Gorda, they take advantage of its proximity to Highway 101 to offer a ‘huachicombo’: “Large Michelada. Gasoline,” reads the signs posted in the local shops.
The semi-deserted town is a passageway for tourists and locals on their way to places like Tzibantzá or the hot springs of Xhidí.
Unlike the huachicoleros on the Mexico-Querétaro highway, here they only offer gas canisters of up to 20 liters, at between 11 and 18 pesos per liter.
In the case of San Sebastián de las Barrancas, belonging to the Municipality of San Juan del Río, stolen gasoline is also offered in the midst of the sale of gorditas, corn on the cob and tacos.
All in broad daylight and in front of a Pemex station.
A member of the National Guard who asked to remain anonymous said that people enter the town “during the day for beer” and “at night for huachicol.”
It is a lawless, ghost place.
Grupo REFORMA reported last June that 30 percent of the fuels sold in the country are derived from some type of huachicol, according to the National Organization of Petroleum Distributors (Onexpo national).
Considering that the gasoline market demands approximately 800 thousand barrels per day, the sale of irregular fuels is 260 thousand barrels per day.
At the beginning of the current administration, there was talk of combating crime, but this has diversified, according to businessmen in the sector.
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