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Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced this Wednesday during his third government report that he will submit to Congress this month a constitutional reform to reverse the “privatizations” in the electric power sector.
“Regarding the electric power industry, this month I will send to Congress a constitutional reform initiative to repair the serious damage caused by privatization to the public sector,” he announced during the event at the National Palace’s Benito Juárez Tribute Hall.
At the beginning of his speech, the President assured that “the transformation is underway” in Mexico and that his government has decided to “stop the privatization trend in its tracks.”
López Obrador, of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena), seeks to nationalize the electric power industry and for the State to have more control over the economy and the private affairs of citizens.
“In a few words, the goal is that we have frequent public supply of electric power, that there are no blackouts and that consumers pay higher rates for power than business corporations,” he said about his reform.
The ruling coalition led by Morena does not have the qualified majority of two thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate to approve constitutional reforms, so it will need to make a pact with the opposition.
President López Obrador is against the electric power reform of his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), which opened the sector to private companies to seek improvements in services.
López Obrador intends the government to take over the electric power industry despite the fact that Pemex, the public oil company, is bankrupt with a debt amounting to 217 billion dollars, showing the state’s inefficiency to manage large corporations.
