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Leftists take over Mexican Congress, protest Calderon’s energy reform bill
Leftist lawmakers took over both chambers of Mexico’s Congress April 10 to protest President Felipe Calderon’s energy reform bill.
Lawmakers of the Democratic Revolution Party stormed the podiums and forced a recess in both the Senate and lower house of Congress at about 1 p.m. Some donned oil worker hard hats and shouted, “The country is not for sale!”
The takeover interrupted Senate debate on a routine measure allowing Calderon to travel to the United States for an April 21-22 summit of North American leaders in New Orleans.
The leftist lawmakers say Calderon’s energy reforms would open Mexico’s national oil company to private investment and would threaten the country’s sovereignty.
Pemex bill protested Calderon’s bill, presented April 8, would make it easier for Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, to sign contracts with outside companies, and would let it offer them bonuses for oil finds and good performance.
It would also allow Pemex — which now depends on U.S. refineries to convert much of its crude into gasoline — to hire specialized companies to build and operate new refineries for Mexico.
Calderon says Pemex needs outside help to boost sagging production. Opponents say he has been exaggerating the crisis and manipulating figures because he wants to privatize the industry, which was nationalized in 1938.
The congressional television channel showed a chaotic scene, with clusters of lawmakers gathered around the podiums shouting at each other. In the lower house, legislators unfurled a massive banner saying “Closed.”
Third takeover The showdown is the third time Mexico’s congressional chambers have been taken over by lawmakers allied with former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador since he was declared the loser to Calderon in the tight 2006 election. Lopez Obrador’s backers have refused to accept the loss.
In September of that year, Democratic Revolution legislators stormed the podium of the lower house, forcing outgoing President Vicente Fox to deliver his state-of-the-union address on national TV. It was the first time a Mexican president did not make the annual speech before Congress.
The congressional chambers erupted into chaos again when lawmakers occupied the dais three days before Calderon’s Dec. 1 inauguration. Allied legislators escorted the new president in through a back door. He took his oath amid a chorus of jeers and quickly left.
—The Associated Press
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