MEXICO CITY — If you think paying $3.50 for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. is a hardship, consider Mexico, where motorists are really getting stiffed.
Nine in 10 gasoline stations in Mexico have rigged their pumps to dispense less than what their meters promise, according to federal authorities, who calculated that purloined petrol cost consumers at least $1 billion last year.
Random checks have revealed that the average retailer, known here as a gasolinero, skims a little more than a liter of gasoline for every 20 sold.
But the most audacious stations would make Al Capone blush. One in the tourist haven of Acapulco was recently caught shorting its customers by nearly half the volume displayed on the pump.
The station was busted by Profeco, the nation's chief consumer watchdog, which has launched a nationwide crackdown on dishonest owners. The agency has mounted surprise inspections, gathering evidence with the help of undercover agents armed with video cameras and vehicles outfitted with special gas tanks that can be removed for lab analysis.
About 1,100 stations, nearly 15% of the country's total, have been caught in the dragnet this year.
Profeco, or the Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor, is closing stations and fining owners to force them to clean up their acts. It plans to post inspection results on the Internet to expose swindlers. And it has launched a public relations campaign to urge motorists to report gasoline cheats.
It's no easy task in Mexico, which is dominated by powerful business interests and which has never been friendly to consumers. Decades of corruption at the government petroleum monopoly have conditioned Mexicans to expect a soaking at the pumps.
"To be a gasolinero is synonymous with being corrupt," said Roberto Karam Ahuad, head of fuel verification for Profeco. "It's like Chicago in the 1930s."
The big difference is that even Windy City mobsters had competition. Mexico's 7,400 retail stations are all franchises of state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, which has a lock on production and sales.
Because the Mexican government sets the price of gasoline -- currently the equivalent of $2.18 a gallon for regular unleaded in most of Mexico -- consumers can't shop for the best deal. Most station owners don't even bother posting prices. They just switch on the pumps and wait for customers to arrive, a process that critics liken to inviting sheep to the shearing.
