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Mexican leftists protest opening oil, gas fields to private industry
Thousands of followers of a former leftist presidential candidate vowed Feb. 24 to close highways, airports and government buildings across Mexico if the legislature opens the country’s state oil industry to private investment.
Chanting “The country should to be defended, not sold,” the demonstrators raised their hands and bellowed “Yes!” when asked if they would participate in blockades and a possible general strike against reforms to open the industry.
“The theft of the oil industry would leave open the risk of a violent confrontation, which would bring us more suffering, political and social instability,” said their leader, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Any government proposal for strategic alliances or investment in state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, would be considered privatization and trigger massive protests, he said.
Private capital, expertise would help No such proposal has yet been submitted, but the administration of conservative President Felipe Calderon has suggested legal reforms are needed because private capital and technical expertise could help Mexico explore deep-water oil fields and reverse the current decline in production.
But according to Lopez Obrador, “it is a lie that we lack money or technology to modernize the oil industry.” He argued that Mexican experts are capable of exploring deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico, where more oil is thought to lie, without foreign or private assistance.
Lopez Obrador blames fraud for his narrow loss to Calderon in Mexico’s July 2006 presidential elections and he has refused to recognize Calderon’s government.
He suggests cutting government waste to give Pemex more money for exploration.
Rosalinda Lopez, a leader of Lopez Obrador’s National Movement to Defend Oil, presented the plan for blockading federal and state legislatures, government buildings, highways and airports.
Oil nationalized in 1938 Mexico’s Constitution bans most private and foreign involvement in the industry, although Pemex subcontracts some work to private firms.
Mexico nationalized its oil industry on March 18, 1938, and the 70th anniversary of that event, to be marked this year, may become a flashpoint for protests.
While Mexican oil production remains vastly profitable, most Pemex earnings are used to fund the nation’s federal budget, leaving little for investment in exploration. Meanwhile, oil supply at the country’s largest field, Cantarell, which was discovered in the 1970s, is running out.
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