Mexico’s government denied accusations by environmental groups that it misrepresented the origin of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, even as the spill continued to spread along the coast of southern Veracruz and into protected areas. The groups said their own satellite-based images contradict Mexico’s account of when and how the release began, while Mexico’s leaders said the spill was more likely connected to natural seeps in the area and that cleanup teams were already at work.
The disagreement comes as authorities and independent investigators point to impacts from the spill, including reports of turtles and other marine life found coated in oil on sea shores, and effects on fishermen who have been unable to work in the waters they have fished for decades. The spill, off Veracruz, has spread more than 373 miles and reached seven nature reserves, environmental groups said.
Mexico’s government initially reported that 800 tons of hydrocarbon-laden waste had spilled into the ocean, and it said the spill started in March. In its account, the sources were a ship anchored off the coastal state of Veracruz and two locations where oil naturally flows.
On Monday, a coalition of 17 organizations—including Greenpeace Mexico, the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking, and the Mexican Center for Environmental Rights, known as CEMDA—publicly contradicted that description. The groups said satellite images they captured showed that the root of the spill was actually a pipeline from Pemex, Mexico’s state-run oil company, and that a large oil slick appeared in early February.
CEMDA spokesperson Margarita Campuzano said Tuesday that the lack of information was compounding harm, adding that accountability had not been pursued. “All this lack of information is causing massive economic and environmental damage. So far no one has been held accountable,” Campuzano said.
The groups also circulated images they said matched what they captured in February. The Associated Press reported that images from February circulating by the activists matched images the AP obtained through Copernicus, the European climate agency, which showed a boat over sea waters clouded with what the groups said was oil streaming out of a platform.
The activists said the boat was Árbol Grande, a company that specializes in pipeline repair, arguing that the vessel’s presence suggested the government knew about the spill before reporting it. Pemex rejected that conclusion, calling the activists’ information and images “inaccurate” and saying the Árbol Grande boat permanently traverses the Gulf of Mexico to carry out preventive inspections of platforms and specialized spill response operations.
President Claudia Sheinbaum denied the environmentalists’ accusations during her morning press briefing on Tuesday. She said no leak had been reported in state oil infrastructure and that natural seeps in the Gulf have happened in the past. Sheinbaum said the government was investigating with scientists whether the spill was due to these natural seeps—an explanation authorities said had been reported on many occasions and documented in scientific literature—or due to a leak from one of the facilities.
While government officials recognized impacts on turtles, birds and fish and the spread into protected ecosystems, they also insisted the spill had not caused “severe environmental damage.” Environmental groups, meanwhile, continued pressing for greater transparency and more aggressive investigations, arguing that technology can make it easier to trace where a spill occurred and who was responsible.
The accusations also surfaced amid broader U.S. environmental debates about drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups in the United States have raised alarm after the Trump administration exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act, arguing the policy could harm marine life and doom a rare whale species.