Mexico's Leftist Opposition Rallies Supporters Against Energy Reforms David Alire Garcia - Business Day
go to original March 18, 2013

MEXICO CITY — Waving party flags and shouting their support, tens of thousands of leftist party members rallied on Sunday against government plans to overhaul Mexico’s energy sector, a preview of the tough road ahead for President Enrique Peña Nieto’s reform push.

Organised by the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the rally took place on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the nationalisation of the country’s oil industry, the historical pivot that gave birth to state oil monopoly Pemex.

Speakers denounced any move to privatise the government-run oil giant, even though Mr Peña Nieto and other members of his centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party have consistently denied any plans to sell or privatise Pemex.

"We are being loyal to this historical legacy that has given our oil riches to the nation and we are going to defend it with everything we’ve got," said Jesus Zambrano, the PRD’s national president, to rousing applause.

He later told reporters that it was "absolutely false" that Mexico’s constitution had to be amended to lure significant private investment into the country’s flagging oil sector.

Read the whole story at Business Day

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