[Mexico:] Leftists outmaneuver rivals to stymie Pemex overhaul

San Antonio Express-News ^ | 04/18/2008 | Sean Mattson

[SwinneySwitch]

MONTERREY, Mexico — For a voting bloc that doesn't control Congress, this nation's main leftist party is doing a good job of running the show.

More than a week has passed since Democratic Revolution Party lawmakers draped a huge banner over the dais in the lower house announcing it was "CLOSED," like a construction site without a permit.

On Thursday, they chained shut the chamber's doors and their allies in the streets forced senators, also evicted from their chamber, to cut short an attempt to hold a session elsewhere in Mexico City.

Lawmakers eventually found alternative locations, reached a quorum and even passed some legislation.

But it was mission accomplished for the PRD, as the party is called: There would be no quick passage of President Felipe Calderón's oil industry reform bill.

"There are no longer any possibilities of that," said Javier González Garza, the PRD whip in the lower house, pointing to the session's April 30 close.

Mexico's oil production is plummeting, which means the petrocash-fueled bureaucracy needs either to collect more taxes or find more oil.

To do the latter, the government oil monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, must drill deep into the Gulf of Mexico, something it has neither the skills or technology to do.

Calderón's modest reform package would allow Pemex to forge alliances with companies that could get the multibillion-dollar job done.

In any other country so dependent on oil, help would be welcome. But oil in Mexico has been a powerful symbol of national sovereignty since the government booted out foreign oil companies in 1938.

The left claims the reform bill would re-privatize the industry and would prefer Pemex go it alone.

Fanning the nationalistic flame is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former Mexico City mayor who lost a squeaker presidential election to Calderón in 2006.

López Obrador almost burned his political capital to ashes by not accepting defeat — he still calls himself Mexico's "legitimate president" — but the oil issue is restarting his career.

"He's a master at it," said George Grayson, a government professor at the College of William and Mary in Virginia who authored a book on the leftist. "That is how he has made his whole career: confronting the establishment."

No party has a majority in Congress. But observers think the reform bill was written with an eye toward getting the backing the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the centrist PRI, which Calderón's National Action Party, the conservative PAN, would need for passage.

And the PRI appears unready to support a vote on the bill while the PRD is putting it under the spotlight.

"It would be a serious political mistake," said Samuel Aguilar, a PRI congressman who favors the probable outcome of the current political circus: A drawn-out national debate on the oil industry.

Grayson compared it to a three-way boxing match, with the PRI hanging back in a corner while Calderón and López Obrador trade blows.

In negotiations this week, the PRD and PAN fought over the debate's length: the PAN originally offered less than two months while the PRD asked for four months.

"But that is rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic," said Grayson. "So you agree to 50, 60, 100 days, you debate every facet of the issue, (López Obrador) is going to remain intractable."

This is not the first time the PRD has taken over Congress — it famously tried to stop Calderón's swearing-in ceremony and prevented his predecessor, Vicente Fox, from delivering his last state of the union address that year.

But this is the longest such protest. PRD senator Carlos Navarette said Friday that no agreement has been reached and that PRD leaders would "evaluate" ending its protests on Monday.

The chamber takeovers are "antidemocratic, illegal and illegitimate," said Rogelio Carbajal, a PAN congressman. "We were elected to legislate, not to kidnap (the legislature)."

Carbajal said the PAN would pursue debate of the bill with or without the PRD.

Ending the session without an agreement is still possible, PRD whip González said. A special session may be called before legislators meet again in the fall, but a long summer of political uncertainty might be on the horizon.

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Mattson.sean@gmail.com

[SwinneySwitch]

"Mexico's oil production is plummeting, which means the petrocash-fueled bureaucracy needs either to collect more taxes or find more oil."

[Migraine]

Wow. This makes Mexico sound just like a 3rd-world country.

[Eurale]

Mexican politics is like their TV programming. It’s all cartoonish.

[Enchante]

In any ranking of which country has the stupidest most doctrinaire hard-left moronic politicians, Mexico must rank near the top, er, bottom, of the world.

[SwinneySwitch]

Pemex Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[SwinneySwitch]

Remember Texas democrats hiding out in OK and NM?

They should have gone to Mexico!

[politicalwit]

This makes Mexico sound just like a 3rd-world country.

That's really rich!!! Sounds just like the left here in the US. Mexican politicians are simply emulating the leftist politics of the USA.

[Migraine]

Sounds just like the left here in the US.

Yep. I think those boys want us to be 3rd-world, too. That way, nobody has to feel bad about themselves, since we'll all be equally miserable, poor and clueless; plus, there'll be no point in crossing anyone's borders anymore. Wheeeee!

[SwinneySwitch]

Obama in 2012!

[quadrant]

If reports are accurate, Pemex has all but ruined the great Cantarell oil field; in fact only about 2/3 of the potential oil may be recovered.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Mexico's oil production is plummeting, which means the petrocash-fueled bureaucracy needs either to collect more taxes or find more oil.

What? Politicians, lawyers and their sychophants are having difficulty getting the oil out of the ground? Hee, Hee.

To do the latter, the government oil monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, must drill deep into the Gulf of Mexico, something it has neither the skills or technology to do.

Politicians can't do jacksh*t. Calling John Galt.

Calderón's modest reform package would allow Pemex to forge alliances with companies that could get the multibillion-dollar job done.

Teansocean (RIG: NYSE) charges $500,000+ per day for their deepwater drill ships/rigs. $$$$. hee, hee.

[C19fan]

Must bring one a smile to think everyday we are importing more and more people from this country that has politicians like this clown Obredor. Culture does matter.