Oh, what a tangled web we weave

When SME, the independent electrical workers union, was dissolved by the forced merger (at gunpoint) of LyFC (Luz y Fuerzo del Centro) and the CFE (Comision Federal de Electricidad), no one quite believed Don Porfirio Felipe’s rationale about union “corruption” with SME and LyFC,  although most appreciated (for now) the better service offered by CFE.

The hoo-haw centered on the forced liquidation of the independent union (as opposed to the corrupt, but pro-Administration teacher’s union or the PEMEX workers union) and on the consumer benefits of lowered prices and presumably better service offered by CFE (and having had both companies at various times, I admit CFE has better customer service, though that may just be that my LyFC service was in central Mexico City, and my CFE service is in a much smaller community with a much newer infrastructure).

The union issue — workers rights versus consumer convenience — has dominated the conversation, with the consumers, so far, winning.  But that could change.  Overlooked in the whole dust-up was, as Pablo Trejo Pérez, a PRD Delegate from working class Itzacalco (within the Federal District), another issue:

Behind the government’s onslaught against [LyFC] lies the dispute of what to do with a 1,100-kilometer long fiber optic network that belongs to the liquidated company. We are talking about a system that makes the transmission of voice and data over any domestic power line or low-voltage source possible, which made the company a major competitor with two more economically powerful companies: Televisa and Telmex.

The internet is, of course, the “road to the 21st century” and the present Federal Administration, like those since the 1990s, have been of the mindset that roads should be privatized.  Roads and bridges have — under the baleful influence of “neo-liberalism”  — been built, not by the state, but by granting private companies  “concessions” (and creating some of the most expensive toll roads on the planet in the process).

Within Mexico, this has not created more than grumbling and some wonkish discussions about the high cost of transporting goods, but has become the standard operating process for road building here.  I suppose, given that the toll-road craze took off during the economic crisis of the 1990s, it was another example of the “Shock Doctrine” — Naomi Klein’s theory that during a crisis, private wealth takes advantage of the situation to increase their power over the economy and the state.  There is some evidence of this, in that when Texas — which for all its weirdness was not in the midst of a hug crisis — attempted to build a major highway though concessions, there was a populist backlash.

With little outside notice, the Federal Administration announced plans to build their “highway to the 21st century” system based on the same “concession” model.

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government announced the launch of a bidding process for 21,208 kilometers (13,178 miles) of state electric utility CFE’s fiber optic network.

The deputy head of the Communications and Transportation Secretariat, or SCT, Gabriela Hernandez, told Efe this network is a trunk structure that will allow cable television companies to deliver “triple play” (Internet, television and telephone) services and complementary technologies to the consumers.

The SCT on Tuesday published the rules for the auction of a pair of unused fiber-optic, or dark fiber, strands. Companies will be able to use the capacity for 20 years, with an option to later extend their lease for another 10 years.

And, where is the hub of most Mexican data traffic (and commerce and media production and…)?

As Pablo Trejo Pérez forecast, Televisa and Telmex are the most likely concessionares. And, it nicely illustrates the theory that the shocks in the “shock doctrine” are often created by the government FOR the benefit of existing enterprises.

What is going to make this interesting to watch is that data transmission lines are not a pressing issue. It can be spun as a populist measure (“cable TV in every chozo!”) but there could be a backlash. In Texas, the opposition that killed the “Trans-Texas Corridor” included environmentalists, rural landowners, conspiracy theorists (who saw it as some plot to replace the dollar with the “Amero” or give the Alamo back to Mexico or some such) and conservatives who suddenly decided “libertarianism” wasn’t so hot when they actually had to pony up for their public services. In Mexico, besides the unionists, expect the TV viewers who hate Televisa and the phone users who hate Telmex (or who just hate rich people) and the left who oppose anything the right proposes, to join in some combination or another.

And, under the radar — or rather, on the existing data lines — there is a growing political movement — “los tuitteros” and groups like “Internet Necessario” which — after defeating a proposed tax change — have discovered they are a constituency to be reckoned with.

This is gonna be fun.