Letter from a New York reader on Mexican oil & big corporations

HÉCTOR PALACIO@NietzscheAristodom 29 dic 2013 18:27

  

A reader and friend of mine from New York City sends a letter after reading “The Chuchous, Penia Nietou, “Pact for Mexicou” & the “Mexican” oil” (SDPNoticias, 12-12-13). Her concepts on this matter and the role of the big oil corporations are so clear that I have decided to publish it.

Dear Hector,

Hola! I hope all is well with you. I read your article, and I am sorry that Enrique Peña Nieto is letting foreign companies into Mexican oil. Just out of curiosity, why did you choose to write it in English?  Were you pointing out that English-language papers have largely come out in favor of EPN's decision?

Randal C. Archibold and Elisabeth Malkin of The New York Times claimed that opposition to Pemex privatization was more of an emotional issue than a practical one, and that only a minority of people were opposed.  After all, Mexico will still own the oil that is brought out of the ground.  According to Archibold and Malkin, having sovereign ownership of its oil has not benefited Mexico's poor; Pemex is inefficient and corrupt and uses underpaid contract employees; Pemex lacks the money and resources to get the oil out of the ground; and drilling by wealthy foreign companies will lead to more jobs and wealth for ordinary Mexicans. 

Whether or not those claims are true, I doubt that letting foreign oil executives onto your land will automatically make ordinary Mexicans better off.  Oil companies already lead the US by the nose, and poor people are starving here.

Sometimes there is a feeble suggestion that US taxpayers should stop subsidizing oil companies so handsomely. One oil executive's retort to that idea sent chills up my spine. I don't remember the exact quote, but he said roughly: “The US government does not subsidize the oil industry. The oil industry subsidizes the government!” They are powerful lobbyists, and they've got our politicians by the balls.

I hope EPN will put strict limits on what power foreign corporations will have in your country.  He may feel he is simply hiring them to extract oil, but the arrangement will have to have clear boundaries around taxes, profits, and respect for the environment.

Mexico's letting foreign companies back in, seems like what my father would call “letting the camel put his nose in your tent. Pretty soon the whole camel will be inside and you'll be pushed out.”  Or maybe it was an elephant... Well, the idea is the same with either beast!

Mexico has something valuable that everyone wants.  It has every right to protect that resource very carefully.

Fondly,

Margaret O’Connell

P.s. Enrique Krauze: I remember you mentioning Krauze in the past, but didn't remember you’d written against him.  Guess his article is another example of how American media are in favor of energy reform.  It surprised me that he favored it, given that he admitted Mexico has really gotten screwed by foreign companies in the past. It's why I didn't mention his article in my letter.  It explained some history, but just reasserted what Archibold said.