Seizure of Mexican Utility Spurs Protests

Washington Post ^ | October 16, 2009 | William Booth

[La Lydia]

MEXICO CITY -- Union members and their political allies filled the streets of the Mexican capital Thursday night to condemn President Felipe Calderón's recent liquidation of a state-run power utility, a surprise move seen by many as an assault on organized labor. Declaring the state-owned company so poorly managed as to be "unsustainable," Calderón on Saturday night authorized the seizure of Central Light and Power. He also deployed about 1,000 federal police officers in riot gear to enforce his decree; workers from another state-run power company swept in to take over the electric grid and keep the lights on.

For Mexico, the takeover marked a pivotal moment. The government has long allowed state enterprises and their powerful unions to operate at a loss, in order to boost employment and keep the peace between haves and have-nots. But, at Central Light and Power, Calderón said the government could not continue to support staffing levels and salaries demanded by the powerful Mexican Electricians Union in the midst of a deep economic crisis. It did not help that the company has lost a third of its electricity to waste and theft.

Union members have reacted with outrage, sparking a widening political brawl over the new realities of the social contract in Mexico.

On Wednesday, Calderón, a member of the conservative, pro-business National Action Party, denied charges by the electricians and their political supporters that the liquidation of Light and Power was the first step in a coming campaign to dismantle other trade unions, such as guilds for teachers and oil workers, which play an outsize role in the economic and political life of Mexico...

[La Lydia]

Cultural explanation: the union members provide themselves, their families and their cronies with free electricity, and sorpreso, the utility nearly goes bankrupt. Calderon tries to do something about it, and he's the villain. This is the kind of thinking that is taking over our country immigrant by immigrant.

[xcamel]

Not CFE?

[La Lydia]

No. He used CFE employees to replace the union ones he ousted.

[xcamel]

It’s a start. CFE is pretty straight-up down on the Baja

[LearsFool]

From a purely political standpoint, I’d find it hard to criticize any hard-nose action by Calderon.

Mexico is in dire straits. As a people, they don’t seem to possess what self-government demands. Calderon and his cabal must surely be looking around the world for a political system to emulate, one which can at least bring peace and stability to their country. The one they settle on probably won’t be pretty.

Democracy simply doesn’t work everywhere. And in those places where it does work, it doesn’t always work the same.

America is exceptional. The factors that make (or made) self-government feasible in our country are not present everywhere in every culture. And they’re constantly being eroded here as well. I’m not sure they were ever present in Mexico, but we’ve subsidized them there as in other countries. For Mexico (and Afghanistan, for instance), that might not be enough anymore.