Mexican Congress approves historic energy bill

[flowers]

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/mexican-congress-approves-historic-energy-bill

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Congress voted Thursday to open the country's moribund state-run oil industry to private investment after a raucous, 20-hour debate over the most dramatic energy reform in decades.

The 353-134 vote in the lower house all but guarantees that President Enrique Pena Nieto will achieve the crowning piece of his first-year reform package, allowing the government to grant contracts and licenses to private companies to explore and drill for oil and gas. His other reforms have dealt with areas including education, taxes and telecommunications.

Such oil contracts and licenses are currently prohibited under Mexico's constitution. The state-run oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has had a monopoly since the sector was nationalized in 1938, and the country's oil has been seen as a symbol of sovereignty ever since.

The bill now has to be approved by the legislatures of 17 of Mexico's 31 states.

Opponents say they want to bring the reform to public referendum and fear that multinationals, especially from the U.S., will once again gain the sort of control they had over Mexico's oil before 1938 .

Mexico is one of the top five crude exporters to the U.S., shipping more than 1 million barrels a day.

A group of leftist lawmakers seized control of the House of Deputies on Wednesday, using chairs and tables to block access to the chamber in a failed attempt to block discussion of the measure. The debate and vote went on in another room.

"The homeland is not for sale! The homeland is to be defended!" they shouted while holding protest signs and Mexican flags.

[Oceander]

A group of leftist lawmakers seized control of the House of Deputies on Wednesday, using chairs and tables to block access to the chamber in a failed attempt to block discussion of the measure. The debate and vote went on in another room.

It's always the leftists.

[SouthTexas]

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/mexican-congress-approves-historic-energy-bill

How long before everything is confiscated?