Thursday, January 24, 2008

More Good news for Calderon!

The last two Mexican Presidents (i.e. the first two truly democratically elected ones) have had trouble advancing their policies because the old ruling party, the PRI, retains a large bloc of seats in the legislature and is their cooperation is crucial for the President's party (the PAN) to pass laws. This stalemate has so far blocked any sort of opening of Mexico's oil industry to foreign investment, despite the fact that PEMEX's reserves are falling and the domestic industry badly needs new investment.

However, over the last week, the PRI is signalling a willingness to allow some limited foreign investment in new explorations and to negotiate over further opening the energy sector. This is potentially a big victory for President Calderon as energy reform was/is one of his key issues. I wasn't wild about the fiscal reform "victory" he recently achieved, but this one looks promising.

Here is a Bloomberg story and here is a more recent piece from Reuters.

Nicely done Mr. President.


hat tip to Boz

1 comment:

Steven Taylor said...

Interesting.

And,while not apropos of the post's subject, it also make me think to recommend Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, if one likes scifi/fantasy.

The reason that comes to mind is because the first book is called Furies of Calderon (perhaps Calderon can appropriate that for his biography).