Mexicans protest gas price hikes as poor set to suffer most

[tenorly]

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Mexico for the second day in a row to protest a spike in fuel prices that critics say will batter the country’s agricultural sector and food security. Transport workers, campesino (smallholder) organizations and other demonstrators blocked highways and supply terminals in Chihuahua and Morelos states, among other locations, local media reported.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters marched in Mexico City carrying signs and shouting slogans including “Out with Peña,” targeting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and “No to the Gasolinazo,” as the price hikes imposed on January 1 have been dubbed.

The growing show of anger and frustration came after Mexico’s Ministry of Finance announced last week that gasoline prices would jump by 20.1% and diesel prices by 16.5% at the beginning of 2017 as years of state-regulated fuel prices come to an end.

Critics have accused Peña Nieto and other government officials of ransacking Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, which has undergone a gradual privatization process in recent years that has broken up the longstanding monopoly. Recent reforms have opened the door for private companies to set up gas stations and extract fossil fuels for the first time since the 1930s, busting Pemex control.

Gerardo Noriega Altamirano, a professor and researcher at the Mexico’s Chapingo Autonomous University, warned that the price increases could jeopardize agricultural production and food security. The expert argued that the fuel price changes is set to increase the price of tortillas, a staple food product in Mexico, while spiking the cost for corn producers by 20%.

Increases in the price of basic food stuffs like tortillas will hit Mexico’s poor the hardest.

The latest blow to poor Mexicans and the country’s agricultural producers could add to Peña Nieto’s dismal approval ratings amid discontent over widespread human rights violations, corruption scandals and unpopular neoliberal reforms that have embattled the government.

Last August, Peña Nieto’s approval rating dipped to 23%, according to Mexico’s Reforma - a low not seen since the newspaper began polling in 1995.

At: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexicans-Protest-Gas-Price-Hikes-as-Poor-Set-to-Suffer-Most-20170102-0006.html