May 11, 2003, 0100 PDT (FTW) --Mexico passed its peak of oil
production in the 1980s. Its nationalized oil company,
Pemex, controls
both the
oil and natural gas resources of our Southern neighbor.
Soon Mexico will not have enough natural gas to meet
even its own needs, let alone exporting it to the US.
As the
Empire's oil reserves shrink and as its natural gas
reserves approach empty, with Canadian tar sands development
proving to be an economic and ecological disaster, the
realities of diminishing hydrocarbon energy supplies
are starting to hit home. Once more the Empire's fig
leaf is removed as the House International Relations
Committee tells Mexico, “If you want better immigration
laws, give us control of your fossil fuels.” The
Sense of Congress resolution needs to be approved by
both houses
and is sure to stir up a fight. But, in the context of
Peak Oil, it will be perhaps the kindest, gentlest move
the Empire makes to obtain control of Mexico's oil.
The
argument that it's only fair because the Mexican
immigrants, only too welcome by employers seeking cheap
labor, will use the energy here don't wash. They
will use far less oil and gas here than US investment
intends to appropriate through ownership.
The signs of
Peak Oil are all around us. And now they are showing
up close to home. – MCR
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Mexicans Outraged by Immigration/Oil Move
JOHN
RICE Associated Press
Posted on Sat, May. 10, 2003
MEXICO CITY - A move in the U.S. Congress to link immigration with opening
up Mexico's state oil company
to U.S. investment has outraged
Mexicans, and newspapers Saturday accused American lawmakers
of arrogance and blackmail.
The House International Relations Committee narrowly approved the
measure Thursday saying that any accord on immigration
issues with Mexico should include an agreement
to allow U.S. companies to invest
in the state oil company Pemex.
The measure
is a nonbinding "sense of Congress" amendment
in a broad State Department funding bill, and must
still be approved by both houses of Congress.
It went nearly unnoticed in the U.S. news media - but created
a storm in Mexico.
The 1938 nationalization of Pemex is celebrated
as a symbol of national pride and was written into
the constitution.
"Blackmail in the US: Immigration Accord
for Pemex," a leading
newspaper, El Universal, said in a front-page headline
Saturday.
The resolution fed into some Mexicans' suspicions about U.S. motives for invading Iraq, which was deeply unpopular
here and was seen by many as an attempt to get Iraqi
oil.
A rival daily, El Sol, called it "the Halliburton Amendment," referring
to the U.S. energy company headed
by Vice President Dick Cheney until August 2000. Halliburton
has contracts to put out oil fires in Iraq and help restart its
oil industry.
President Vicente Fox was once bombarded with criticism for suggesting
that Pemex be privatized.
He has since promised dozens of times to keep the company in state
hands, though his administration has tried to draw
foreign private investment through a new service contract
system drawn to skirt constitutional restrictions.
The amendment,
authored by North Carolina Republican Cass Ballenger,
said Pemex "is inefficient,
plagued by corruption and in need of substantial reform
and private investment" so that it can "fuel
future economic growth, which can help curb illegal
migration to the United States."
Mexican officials have vowed to crack down on corruption and inefficiency
in Pemex since arresting
the oil union chief in a military-style raid in 1989.
Mexico's federal Justice Department
is investigating several current oil union leaders
accused of diverting millions of dollars to the losing
2000 presidential campaign of the then-ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party.
Economy Secretary
Fernando Canales Clariond said Pemex "definitely
will not be opened to foreign capital."
Mexico City
Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, widely seen as a possible
presidential candidate, also
rejected the proposal, saying "the oil belongs
to all Mexicans. It's the nation's - not that of the
state or the government."
In its lead editorial, El Universal linked the resolution to post-Iraq-war
hubris:
"Swelled by their military victory in Iraq, some sectors in (the United States) are trying to carry
out a policy of imposing might over right in all areas
of their relationship with the rest of the world."
The newspaper Excelsior referred to "the arrogance of Washington's imperial
power, set on the crest of the military victory over Iraq."
A spokesman for Republicans on the International Relations Committee,
Sam Stratman, noted that
immigration in the United States and Pemex in Mexico "are very emotional
issues that are very difficult to discuss rationally."
"We certainly understand that the final decision on issues
concerning Pemex rests with
the Mexican government and the Mexican people," he
said. "This resolution is not aimed at promoting
ownership of any piece of Pemex by
American oil companies."
