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PULSE NEWS MEXICO

As if Mexico City’s much-maligned and poorly maintained metro public transportation system didn’t have enough problems already — what with at least four seemingly preventable major accidents over the course of the last four years under the administration the capital’s governor, Claudia Sheinbaum, including a Line 3 crash as recently as Jan. 7, which left one person dead and at least 100 injured, and the notorious October 2021 Line 12 collapse that killed 24 people — on the morning of Monday, Jan. 23, the system suffered yet another crisis as some 60 users were forced to evacuate the Barranca del Muerto station on Line 7 as smoke billowed out of the underground terminal.

According to initial reports, thick, gray smoke began to rise from one of the metro trains, and local authorities — but not any of the 6,000 federal National Guardsmen who were deployed by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) earlier this month to “protect the metro system” —  immediately ordered the evacuation of everyone in the station.

About half those evacuated suffered smoke inhalation.

The Mexico City government later stated that the smoke was due to an apparent short circuit.

Because of the incidence, the capital government has closed down service at four of the line’s 14 stations, from San Pedro de los Pinos to Barranca del Muerto, until further notice.