Global Capitalism and the Neoliberal Privatization of Energy Reserves: A Mexico Case Study

Abstract

In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilated the country’s constitution, privatizing upwards of seventy-five percent of the country’s hydrocarbon reserves. This article suggests that this neoliberal strategy, carried out by transnationally oriented elites operating through state apparatuses in Mexico (and promoted by officials in Washington and within the International Financial Institutions), is meant to benefit transnational capital. Such drastic change to Mexico’s legal order, we argue, in fact violated the country’s constitution and symbolized a break with the country’s earlier model of development. The federal government’s anti-constitutional behavior, specifically its violation of Article 136 of the constitution, provides a legal basis for dismissing top officials from their posts and moving toward a constitutional assembly.

The politics of energy privatization in Latin America: Contours and directions

“…In this transition, Latin America integrated into the globalized economy through trade agreements, privatization of public goods, and the expansion of labor supply chains into the region leading to the system of maquiladoras in Central America and on the Mexico/US border (Massey et al., 2006; Robinson, 2008). To become integrated into the global economy and to manage both inflationary and sovereign debt crises, countries in Latin America privatized their State‐Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in key sectors, such as electricity (Almeida, 2012; Muller & Rego, 2021; Recalde, 2011), water (Haiul et al., 2012), and oil and gas (Del Castillo et al., 2018; Sweeney, 2021).…”

“…Peña Nieto's reforms of 2013 changed PEMEX and its energy company to a state productive enterprise that was expected to make profit and to draw bids from foreign solar and wind companies (Sweeney, 2021). These reforms, while touted as democratic, were fast‐tracked and imposed with little public debate or discussion (Del Castillo et al., 2018).…”

Neoliberal Resource Nationalism: The Scramble for Mexico’s Hydrocarbons

“…The 2013-2014 energy reform ended PEMEX's monopoly on hydrocarbon exploration, exploitation, and distribution. Although an in-depth explanation of why a farreaching energy reform passed in 2013 and details about its content are beyond the scope of this article because of space constraints (for details see Alpízar Castro and Rodríguez-Monroy, 2016;Cypher, 2018;Del Castillo-Musot et al, 2018;Luna Gómez, 2020;Rodríguez-Padilla, 2018;Rousseau, 2017;2020;Tetreault, 2019;and Vargas, 2015a), it is important to note that hints of the inherited oil nationalism continued to play a role, and PEMEX was protected from total privatization. PEMEX continues to exist and is still the largest company in the country, and constitutional limitations on private sector participation in numerous aspects of the hydrocarbons industry persist.…”

The State, Accumulation, and Oaxaca’s Earthquake Survivors: Three Mechanisms of Inequality

“…Along with Latin American nations in general, Mexico has been ensnared in what some call “the politics of dispossession and neoliberal enclosures of communal goods” (Navarro, 2015: 22). Relatedly, the legacy of former President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018) includes “energy reform” (del Castillo-Mussot et al, 2018: 109–110; Cypher, 2014), oil privatization (Cypher, 2018), and corrupt impunity under the cover of an ongoing “war on drugs” (Rosen and Zepeda, 2016: 61–80). The region of Oaxaca where I performed this fieldwork, the Tehuantepec Isthmus, has been a cradle of socialist and nationalist political activity, particularly by the Zapotecs in and around the city of Juchitán, at least since the early 1970s (Campbell 1993; Rubin, 1997).…”