Sunday, April 13, 2008

First step to privatize PEMEX..Chavez and Lula proposed an alliance


This week the Mexican congress was kidnapped by some members of Mexico's left party. President Felipe Calderon presented a proposal to change the current situation of the national oil company, called by himself "light proposal for PEMEX".

This proposal has caused a mini coup, according to some newspapers. The same day the proposal to reform PEMEX was announced, supporters of the left party and followers of Andres Lopez Obrador, kidnapped the congress. All the access to the building were restricted, nobody, including policemen, could enter. President of Mexico said that after his proposal it is needed a debate in order to polish and have a more integral proposal. And it is important to highlight that this proposal does not mentioned a privatization, only participation of International Companies.

The same day, Chavez, president of Venzuela, expressed his interest to create an alliance between PDVSA and PEMEX and thus strengthen a Latin American bloc. This idea also was manifested by Lula, Brazilian president, 3 weeks ago saying that PETROBRAS and PEMEX must work together to explore for new wells.

Nowadays Mexicans are experiencing an historical change. Citizens are very divided but at the same time not very well informed of what is happening. Most of the people who agree with the left party and help to make meetings or riots are people with low levels of education, and in most of the cases these people participate in this activities to obtain 200 pesos ($20dls) or simply box-lunch.

It is a difficult process and hopefully, by the end of the year we could see an advance of this urgent change for Mexico.

1 comment:

Amanda Cuellar said...

I think this is an important issue for Mexico. Current Mexican law, from what I understand, prohibits exploration in Mexico or help in this are from any organization other than PEMEX. Recently (in the past few years), a large oil reservoir was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, but PEMEX does not have the expertise to extract the oil from this well. Because Mexico does not allow any outside companies to help with the oil exploration, the country is left with an abundant source of oil they cannot extract.
Personally, I think Mexico would commit a grave error if it were to enter into an alliance with Venezuela. Mexico has a great resource, and they should exploit it intelligently. I think allowing outside oil companies bid on the exploration of hard to reach oil wells is a good way to reap the maximum benefit from their resource without fully privatizing the oil industry in Mexico. This, from what I understood from the previous post, is what President Calderon is trying to do (perhaps...). I agree with Angel, though, that much of the public's opposition to this plan is a lack of knowledge about the problem at hand and possible benefits, as well as some pocket change and a free lunch.