López Obrador: "Repsol does not pay me, the Mexicans pay me"

The United States increased pressure this week on the latest twists in Mexico's energy policy and Andrés Manuel López Obrador has responded forcefully and to the attack.

43 US congressmen sent a letter to Donald Trump on Thursday denouncing that the Morena government was violating the spirit of the Treaty between the United States, Mexico and Canada (T-Mec), by limiting private participation in the energy sector.

The letter also came after documents were released that allegedly show the president's instructions to regulators to give preferential treatment to state-owned Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

From a thermoelectric plant in Coahuila, and accompanied by the governor Miguel Riquelme (PRI) and the director of CFE, Manuel Bartlett, López Obrador's response was to first defend that his energy policy does not clash with the T-Mec - "on this issue our country has not signed any agreement with the government of the United States or Canada "- to later charge against the policies of previous governments and against private concessionaires.

“Repsol is not paying me.

Mexicans pay me to serve them, and that is why I have to defend the public interest, not the interest of individuals ”, in addition to also pointing out the revolving doors between the world of politics and the large energy companies:“ they took to work to which she was secretary of energy of the government, but not only that they took Repsol as a director to former president Felipe Calderón ”.

The letter sent to Trump is not the first criticism of the new direction in Mexican energy policy, one of López Obrador's electoral battlehorses in 2018. Energy sovereignty has been one of the central points in the traditional agenda of the Mexican left. .

In fact, in 2008 the campaign of the Front in Defense of Petroleum, led by López Obrador, was one of the seeds of what would later become Morena.

This week, the CEO of Spanish energy company Iberdrola said in a meeting with investors that the company is ruling out new investments in Mexico until the regulatory framework is clarified.

The congressmen's letter denounced for their part that the Mexican government is granting preferential regulatory treatment to parastatals, to the extent of postponing or even completely canceling permits for US energy companies.

The leaked documents also had an impact on “the memorandum of the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in which he tells the Mexican authorities to use all available resources within the regulations to protect PEMEX and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE ) ".

The letter also stressed that Morena has presented constitutional initiatives to reverse the energy reform of 2103

The Government of Enrique Peña Nieto approved a historic reform, one of its star measures, which allowed private companies to enter the business after 76 years of state monopoly.

At that time, the president of the PRI achieved broad international support and the support of the other two major parties (PRD and PAN) for that reform that also sought to relaunch a battered Pemex through the promotion of new contracts with private capital.

The Mexican public company has been in a tunnel for years: last year it reported losses of 18,000 million dollars, double the previous year.

It is the most indebted in the world, with more than 105,000 million dollars in debt.

Its production has fallen 50% in the last two decades and producing each barrel of oil costs it more expensive each year.

The Morena government's will to save Pemex, injecting public aid, has also aroused criticism.

In a context, in addition, of economic restrictions, both due to the blow of the pandemic and the drift of the Mexican economy since the end of last year.

López Obrador put on the table this Saturday even a new constitutional change to reverse the reform of Peña Nieto.

"In the event that the current legal framework cannot strengthen Pemex and the Federal Electricity Commission, I will send, if necessary, an initiative to reform the Constitution"