Eight months after constitutional amendments were introduced to reform Mexico’s oil and gas, and electricity sectors, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took a historic step and signed energy reform bills passed by the Congress of the Union into law.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s major policy reform proposals, on everything from new taxes on soda pop to amending the 70-year constitutional prohibition on foreign investment in Mexico’s petroleum sector, have swept through that nation’s congress with breathtaking speed.
This blog regularly focuses on the foreign policy reverberations of the U.S. energy boom. As discussed in earlier posts (here and here), these include the gradual paring back of U.S. strategic commitments in the Persian Gulf*, the diminution of Russia’s great power aspirations**, as well as a boost to America’s soft-power prospects and global standing. But […]
President Enrique Peña Nieto has mounted an assault against Mexico’s entrenched monopolies over the past two months. He first took on the teachers union, then the telecoms, explaining his aim was to “transform the country, not just to run it.” Where’s this going? As noted by the Financial Times, the reform offensive “could ultimately even shake up […]
Since before the 2006 election of President Felipe Calderon, Elba Esther Gordillo has been someone who could wag a finger and move Mexico’s most powerful politicians into line. These include former President Calderon himself. Gordillo is head of the Mexican teachers union, the largest union in Latin America at 1.4 million members. Historically a member […]
President Obama’s election victory last month proposed many new policy changes for the next four years. One of the most important policy relationships may be the one between the United States and Mexico. This past Saturday, Enrique Pena Nieto was sworn in as Mexico’s new President. With policy challenges for Nieto tied greatly to Mexico’s […]
I want to provide an update on my story about Mexico’s presidential election, which takes place today, July 1. It seems this election is as much a referendum on democracy and the openness of the Mexican political system itself as it is about any one candidate. After 12 years of struggle to move Mexico forward under […]
No one ever said democracy is easy (well, if anyone did, they shouldn’t have). It offers the promise of freedom and the ability of people to choose who governs them. But constant vigilance is required to ensure democracy holds on, and prevents government from transforming into something more sinister. Democracy exists today in many parts […]
Mexico’s presidential election, to be held July 1, looks like a foregone conclusion. President Felipe Calderón’s right-wing National Action Party (PAN) has fallen far out of favor due to Mexico’s terrible drug violence. In the past 5 years, the drug wars have killed over 45,000 people. The Northern border city of Ciudad Juarez had 300 […]
In little over a week since officially entering Mexico’s 2012 Presidential contest, the campaign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) Enrique Peña Nieto already finds itself in full damage control following an embarrassing performance by the candidate during the presentation of his new book, and disparaging comments made by the candidate’s teenage daughter. While speaking […]