Mexico agreed with the United States to review “case by case” the situation of foreign companies dissatisfied with the electrical reform that will be debated this year in Congress to grant greater control to the State in the business, said this Friday morning the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The legal initiative is the central theme of the visit that began to the Latin American country on Thursday and concludes in the next few hours by the US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, to meet with the president and several high-level officials.
“Where there is, they consider that there is, an injustice, the cases are reviewed, they already have a list, there are some companies that are asking to be informed, both Americans and Canadians, there are few,” AMLO said in his usual conference daily press, without offering further details.
The reform, which would imply changing the Constitution to favor the state electric company, the Federal electricity commission (CFE), was promoted by the president as a matter of national security, arguing that previous governments biased the market in favor of private capital.
According to the official, Granholm understood that the objective of the Mexican government is to “banish the corruption” that supposedly allowed private companies in the sector to benefit from leonine contracts for the State. For his part, the president expressed his “willingness to dialogue,” he explained.
Before the visit, four Democratic senators urged in a letter to the US official and Secretary of State, Antony Blink, to “express concerns more forcefully” about the energy agenda of López Obrador, arguing that it was “antithetical” to bilateral relations.
The European Union’s ambassador to Mexico recently denounced that the initiative is hampering investment because it could hamper companies’ commitments to increase the use of renewable energy.