Mexican Leftist Leader Launches Campaign Against Oil Industry Reforms
MEXICO CITY – Former leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched a national campaign in southern Mexico “in defense of the petroleum industry” and against any privatization plans included in the energy reform plan to be debated by Congress this year, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) said.
The two-time presidential candidate told supporters in the city of Juchitan that the “gang of criminals, who misgovern the country, have a plan to steal, to take, the petroleum that belongs to the people and the nation,” Lopez Obrador’s press team said in a statement.
Lopez Obrador, who organized Morena as a political organization that aspires to become a party, called on his supporters to prepare to fight to stop the privatization of state-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which has a monopoly over the production of crude and distribution of gasoline.
Mexico has a “regime of corruption” under which producing a barrel of crude costs $10, but it is sold at $100, yielding a profit of $90 per barrel, Lopez Obrador said.
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