Thread: Mexicans rally to oppose oil privatization

Sounds like they have the same problems south of the border as we do here. "THEIR GOVERNMENT DOESN'T LISTEN TO THEM". Both of these governments are creating and amplifying the tension both here and there. I found it ironic though that they are worried that the US might meddle in their affairs considering all the meddling the Mexican government is doing in ours.

Mexicans rally to oppose oil privatization

Opponents of Mexican energy bill vow to take demonstrations nationwide
50 commentsby Chris Hawley - Apr. 13, 2008 02:59 PM
Republic Mexico City Bureau
MEXICO CITY - Shouting "No to the robbery!" thousands of Mexicans vowed Sunday to launch demonstrations nationwide against President Felipe Calderón's effort to open the state oil monopoly to private investment.

Organizers said they were ready to seize oil wells in Mexico, the third-biggest supplier of petroleum to the United States after Saudi Arabia and Canada, but were only convening rallies for now. Opposition lawmakers were staging sit-in protests in the Mexican Congress to prevent debate on Calderón's bill.

"We cannot accept or allow . . . a small group of people to take the inheritance of all Mexicans for themselves," protest leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador told tens of thousands of people gathered Sunday in Mexico City's main Zócalo plaza.

Calderón's proposal, which was filed in the Mexican Senate on Wednesday, would allow private companies to build refineries, transport oil and its derivatives, and own pipeline networks. It would not, however, allow private companies to enter into joint ventures with Pemex to drill for oil deep in the Gulf of Mexico - something that oil companies had hoped for.

Still, López Obrador said the bill would weaken Pemex and put Mexicans at the mercy of foreign-owned refiners.

He likened Calderón to Antonio López de Santa Anna, the former Mexican general and president that Mexicans blame for losing half of the country's territory to the United States in the 1800s.

Any potential blockades were unlikely to disrupt shipments to the United States because most Mexican oil is taken to U.S. refineries by sea, analysts have said.

The National Movement for the Defense of Petroleum, which organized Sunday's protest, said it would mobilize similar rallies in town plazas across Mexico on April 20.

State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, has controlled the industry since Mexico nationalized all private oil companies in 1938.

Opponents fear that if U.S. companies get a foothold in the Mexican oil industry, the U.S. government could meddle in Mexican affairs or even take military action to protect their interests.

At Sunday's rally, anti-U.S. sentiment ran high. Members of the leftist Workers' Party handed out comic books that accused the United States of invading Afghanistan and Iraq in order to control the oil of the Middle East. A sign carried by one protester showed an inebriated Uncle Sam drinking from barrels of Mexican oil.

López Obrador says he has 28,000 volunteers ready to carry out blockades of oilfields if need be.

"I'm ready to do whatever it takes," said Melba López, a 67-year-old retired teacher from the western state of Guerrero. "The oil has to remain the property of the Mexican people."


Reach the reporter at chris.hawley@arizonarepublic.com

Where I have been a strong opponent of illegal immigration, some may think that I have hard feelings for the Mexicna people. To the contrary! This latest action by the Mexican government is just one more threat to the financial security and well-being of its populace. The oil should remain part of the Mexican people's treasury. The attempt to privatize it is all part of the globalization issue. Those in power seek to enrich the elites who placed them there.

It seems to be a trend to sell off the publics property without their consent and pocket the profits.

Globalism touches everywhere.

Naomi Kleins book, The Shock Doctrin, touched on this topic a lot. The book recapped the history we have all been seeing unfold before us and giving new light to what the Main Stream Media was telling us.

http://www.naomiklein.org/main

Opponents fear that if U.S. companies get a foothold in the Mexican oil industry, the U.S. government could meddle in Mexican affairs or even take military action to protect their interests.

Kinda like Mexico is meddling in our affairs now? I want Mexico to keep it's oil AND take back all their citizens who are here illegally. Both or none.

Well aside from the Hypocracy I am glad they are joining in standing together for what is rightfully theirs....you can't get that many Americans to protest in one place to stop the illegal immigration, visa's, NAU etc..

I don't think that it is so much the United States they need to worry about but the people that control it.

It seems when they don't get their way things happen like your access to funds is cut off until you comply.

Then again maybe they have a point. I sort of remember a story a while back where Bush had his puppet government in Iraq pass a law making it illegal to try and overthrow the Iraqi government. I heard he had them add an exclusion for the oil companies he has in control there.

Or those that control him have in control of the oil pumping there.

López Obrador says he has 28,000 volunteers ready to carry out blockades of oilfields if need be.

"I'm ready to do whatever it takes," said Melba López, a 67-year-old retired teacher from the western state of Guerrero. "The oil has to remain the property of the Mexican people."

Well, now, I think all the illegals here should go home and help this poor man out protecting the oilfields.

Originally Posted by SOSADFORUS

Well aside from the Hypocracy I am glad they are joining in standing together for what is rightfully theirs....you can't get that many Americans to protest in one place to stop the illegal immigration, visa's, NAU etc..

Well said sosad