The whirlwind of all kinds of evidence stirred up by the statements of President Peña Nieto during his visit to the Group of Eight in connection with the participation of private initiative in the energy sector--namely, that the Constitution reserves exclusively to the State--prompted me to post on Twitter:
"Mexicans, check the names of those who support EPN's energy reform. Is there anyone who inspires confidence? Who?"Many replies of "Nobody", "No one", "None" came back, but no specific name appeared. My question was posted before the article written by the ineffable former PAN president Germán Martínez appeared. The article is a model of the President's reaction today. The title asks, "Why Not Privatize Pemex?", and the text calls for "modernization", "strengthening", "expanded capacities" and other "euphemisms" and it speaks what is clear: privatize.
According to his statements to The New York Times and the Financial Times, the President's efforts to deliver the [oil] sector to private investment--the openness, as it is called--are seen to be unconscious reactions, conditioned reflexes, dogmas rooted in the depths of his being, deep convictions that come from the heart, obedient responses to guidance received from interested international agencies and pressing needs to fulfill his commitments not signed before a notary.
Nevertheless, despite such obviousness, the strategy followed to "convince" the nation with ambiguities, half-truths, manipulated statistics and careful "marketing", has yielded dividends.
One of them, the Pact for Mexico, a result of the PRI's political efficacy--it must be recognized--in which they have slipped in--to varnish with "consensus"--issues that do not have and will not have consensus, such as the case of the vote for opening the energy sector--54 to 57. In short, it is proposed to deliver to private investment the growth of the current industry from the bottom up, beginning with refining, and to allow through "risk contracts" risk-free access to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons, and thus to oil revenues.
This is the Pact that the PAN happily, and I want to assume that the PRD ingenuously, signed. The latter, to the extent that its president, who denies having reached agreements--although he signed the celebrated document--now proposes an initiative to disassociate itself from the serious impacts of the agreement on the future of Mexico and its energy security.
As in 2008, now the Parade of Reforms will come. Each party will present its own three-ring circus. Will they try to amend their errors (PRD)? Or will they try to expand the horizon of their purposes (PAN) with the danger of offering in their ambitious focus, in their ignorance, in their irresponsibility or in their subordination, "comfortable" arguments in order that the government might achieve the goals that it pursues?
Whatever their game, it is necessary to make clear that none of the political parties represents the opinion of the majority of Mexicans even closely and even less on this issue.
If the PAN is "fed up to here with the PRI", as has been said, and the "PRI is fed up to here with the PAN", as it rejoined, they can be certain that the citizenry "is fed up to here with all the political parties". In the voting booths and in the streets, the citizenry will make them see, even if they insist on ignoring them and acting against the nation, just because they might be able to achieve a "majority" in the chambers [of Congress].
There should be an open dialogue with the entire society, not in the shadows or in bullet-proof leadership meetings, for this is a matter of utmost importance. We cannot allow the abuse of power to deliver our patrimonio [legacy; oil as symbol of sovereignty and national pride]. We will not accept constitutional changes "to give certainty to private investors", as the president declared. We demand respect for the Constitution, as the President declared when he took office, in order to give certainty to the Mexicans of that which is required by legal mandate. Spanish original
There should be an open dialogue with the entire society, not in the shadows or in bullet-proof leadership meetings, for this is a matter of utmost importance. We cannot allow the abuse of power to deliver our patrimonio [legacy; oil as symbol of sovereignty and national pride]. We will not accept constitutional changes "to give certainty to private investors", as the president declared. We demand respect for the Constitution, as the President declared when he took office, in order to give certainty to the Mexicans of that which is required by legal mandate. Spanish original
*Javier Jiménez Espriú is a Mechanical Engineer and a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he has served as director of the School of Engineering and a member of the UNAM’s Governing Board. In the 1990s he was deputy director of Pemex [Petróleo Mexicano] and has been a member of the Board of Directors of such companies as Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), Mexicana and Aeromexico. Jiménez Espriú can be reached via email at: jimenezespriu@prodigy.net.mx and via Twitter: @jimenezespriu