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Mexican opposition blocking debate on Pemex reform proposal
AP/Jorge Rio
Opposition lawmakers, who stormed the podium of the National Congress and
covered it with a huge banner, wave Mexican flags in Mexico City, Thursday, April 10, 2008.
MEXICO CITY
Petroleumworld.com, April 18, 2008
With the doors to the Mexican Lower House of Congress debating
chamber barricaded by opponents of proposed reforms to the nation's state oil
and gas industry, and the Senate likewise blocked, President Felipe Calderon's
idea of fast-tracking the reforms through the legislature appeared doomed
Thursday.Calderon's National Action Party (PAN) had agreed on Monday to hold a
national debate over 50 days on the reform proposals for the state-controlled
industry, which President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized in 1938. This was a
concession, suggested by the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI), after Calderon had originally harbored hopes of getting congressional
approval of the reforms by April 30.But as the weekend approached, a coalition of left-wing opposition
parties was occupying the nation's principal debating chambers for the seventh
day as well as holding out for a national debate to last over four months and
be broadcast on radio and TV. Some of the protesters were dressed in Mexican
revolutionary outfits.Calderon sent his plan to Congress April 8. Among other measures he
proposed: opening refining and pipelines at state owned oil company Pemex to
private investment; allowing Pemex more flexibility in negotiating upstream
contracts; introducing independent members to the Pemex board; and removing
congressional control over Pemex spending and projects.If approval of the proposals is not achieved by the end of this month, a
special congressional session can be called in the summer.However, echoing left-wing politicians' vehement opposition to the
fast-track plan, Javier Gonzalez Garza, coordinator of the Party of Democratic
Revolution (PRD), assured reporters the reforms would not be approved any time
between May and August.As for the federal government, it will not intervene to free the two
congressional debating chambers, according to Cuauhtemoc Cardona Benavides,
under-secretary for liaison with legislators at the Interior Ministry."We are not going to mediate. We know we have to respect" whatever
Congress decides, he said."We would like everything in the Lower House to be a little more normal.
But unfortunately this is not the case and we have to be patient."
Story by Stephen Downer from Platts
Platts 17 04 08
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