Sunday reading
Laura Carlsen, who is probably the best informed foreign writer on Mexican political and social policy, nicely summarizes “Mexico’s Battle Over Oil” for Foreign Policy in Focus:
Ironically the politicians calling for handing over refining and other Pemex operations to foreign companies are the same ones responsible at least in part for the company’s current incapacity. What all the reports fail to mention is that much of the deterioration of Pemex occurred under the watch of the same political party that now argues that the only way to save the company is to contract out to the private sector. Felipe Calderon served as secretary of energy in the Fox administration from 2003-2004. PAN governments have held power for nearly eight years, during which time Pemex had record sales due to high international oil prices. What happened to all that money? Why wasn’t it reinvested in the oil company to avoid the current crisis?
The bleeding of PEMEX was a conscious administrative and political decision, for two reasons. First, the funds siphoned out of the petroleum behemoth masked the real state of the Mexican economy. The Treasury Ministry used Pemex income, and especially the windfall profits of the past few years that are not earmarked in the congressionally approved budget, as a petty cash box. Much of this money went to pay off foreign debt. Some of it disappeared into corruption such as the Pemexgate case of financing the PRI presidential candidacy. And much of the rest ended up in presidential pet projects. Successive administrations bled Pemex for political aims and with little or no accountability to Congress or the Mexican people.>/span>
Second, neoliberal administrators intentionally sought to create a dismal outlook for the state-owned enterprise to strengthen their difficult case for privatization. Only by presenting a doomsday scenario could they hope to pass the key legislative reforms regarding the oil industry that would finally fulfill the objectives for structural reform envisioned by the World Bank, the U.S. government, and Mexico’s neoliberal governments.
Reuters reports on Mexico’s first transgender wedding.
Joey Gomez, of the Rio Grande Guardian, writes on the latest insanity by the Department of Homeland Stupidity (you, know, the federal department that includes FEMA — the folks who “responded” so well in New Orleans, and elsewhere):
And, in East Side Boxing News: Mexican Jorge “el Travisio” (the Menace) Arce… all 115 pounds of him… is the new WBC super-flyweight champion.
As far as I know, my book is supposed to be out by August. The editor has been reviewing the proofreader’s corrections and working on maps and the index. I’m tied up for the next week or two writing the history section for a guidebook to Mexico City, so will be back to less than daily postings for a few…
mexfiles.net 
“Ironically the politicians calling for handing over refining and other Pemex operations to foreign companies are the same ones responsible at least in part for the company’s current incapacity.”
“The bleeding of PEMEX was a conscious administrative and political decision, ”
This is what I have been writing about for the past year or more. See http://www.wiki.pemex.org .
The past few presidents of Mexico have been hoping for a milking of PEMEX for thir own huge retirement accounts, and thanks to GOD it may be averted. The PEMEX can be the saviour to the poor of Mexico now, with the price of oil, and keeping it in under government control, if corruption ca be minimized, then the oil value today can be diverted to the populous. Just as it was meant to be starting in 1938. And even more so today……..
“According to the government’s own reports, then, Pemex has been virtually abandoned over the past quarter of a century. Given the nation’s reliance on oil revenues, why weren’t new refineries built and old ones converted? Why was the infrastructure left to deteriorate? ”
This is more classic than the goose that layed the golden egg. The government figred that by ignoring and underfunding PEMEX, then at some point, someone in government could score a sales commision. If not that, then they were just cutting a budget. In a anyways, the underfunding of PEMEX was just a short sided planning stupidity at best.
Mexico is in desperate need of a long term and honest planning government.
This is just too much BS. Let’s talk facts. Is any state owned oil company drilling deepwater wells without any private partners? I don’t believe so. Petrobras is not. Even the private oil companies partner up when they are drilling these wells because of the massive risk and capital that go into them.
Even to say that Pemex is not contracting out is wrong. As the article notes, Pemex imports 40% of its gasoline from the US – thanks for the money and jobs, Mexico (high paying jobs, too)! Wouldn’t it be better for Mexico if, instead of importing fuel and oil products from US refineries, Pemex allowed the same people to build and operate a new refinery in Mexico? Then the jobs and the capital investment would stay in Mexico instead of being outsourced to the US – what a thought!
And to say that the neglect of Pemex is part of some grand conspiracy on the part of 4 presidents from two different parties – come on! It is simply an unwillingness to make the difficult political and financial decisions that are involved when looking at Mexico’s taxation and energy needs – we here in the US should be familiar with that type of governmental inaction. Pass the buck until the crisis happens.
This issue is all about emotion and pride. If Mexico wants to continue to go it alone, they are going to have to bite the bullet and raise billions to drill in the deepwaters of the Gulf. This will take money away from education, transportation, healthcare, etc in the short term. If that is Mexico’s choice, so be it – but at least let’s be honest about what the choices are.