One area the two presidents will explore is the exploitation of Mexico's energy resources. According to the Financial Times, Fox is promoting the notion of a "common energy policy stretching across the Nafta [North American Free Trade Agreement] frontiers."

Washington is seeking openings to build power plants in Mexico where there are fewer environmental restrictions and cheaper electricity can be easily exported to the United States.

At the end of January, Mexico began selling 50 megawatts a day of electricity to California--and as much as 250 megawatts during off-peak hours. While a small percentage of California's energy needs, it is a harbinger of what the Bush administration hopes will be a great deal more. A February 3 San Francisco Chronicle article commenting on this deal pointed out, "Those are relatively tiny amounts, compared with the state's peak demand of about 28,000 megawatts, but they are lighting a bright gleam in the eyes of politicians from Sacramento to Washington."

Fox, who prior to assuming the presidency on December 1 was head of the Coca-Cola company in Mexico, has made an initial move to undercut the nationalized oil industry by proposing opening to private foreign investment the huge Burgos dry natural gas field located just south of Texas, which could be used to produce electricity for export to the United States.

For decades all gas and oil production in Mexico has been nationalized and under the control of Pemex, the state oil enterprise. Pemex has been regarded by Mexican working people as a symbol of national sovereignty and dignity since the country's petroleum resources were taken back from pillage by British and U.S. monopolies in 1938 in response to huge anti-imperialist mobilizations by Mexican workers and peasants.

In the early 1990s in the face of massive opposition, the Mexican regime had to back off its announced plans to privatize petrochemical operations. With the collapse of the peso at the end of 1994 Washington's "rescue" plan took aim at making inroads against Mexico's nationalized energy industry. The Mexican government announced plans to sell off 61 secondary petrochemical plants for $1.5 billion. But once again, rising nationalist opposition to this planned privatization move forced then Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo to back off, saying only a minority stake in these operations would be put up for sale.

Other imperialist-controlled investments in power production in Mexico are also in the works. According to the Chronicle, "U.S. and European power companies are building three power plants in Baja California that are expected to export up to 1,000 megawatts across the border."

Sempra Energy International--the San Diego-based company that owns Southern California's two largest utilities--just recently finished building a natural gas pipeline to Baja California's largest generating plant in Rosarito, and is building another pipeline from Arizona to another new plant under construction there.

As in the United States, manufacturing companies in Mexico are being affected by high natural gas prices, leading to mounting layoffs. For example, Hylsamex, Mexico's largest steel manufacturer, cut its payroll by 1,350 workers and has closed four plants since September.

"We have a power problem of our own, we have a natural gas problem of our own," insisted Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castanada, in a visit to Washington in early February.  
 
Bush opens border to Mexican trucks
Meanwhile, President George Bush announced February 7 that he was reversing a Clinton administration policy and would begin allowing Mexican trucks to haul goods throughout the United States. Bush's decision was announced the same day that an arbitration panel ruled that Washington was in violation of the NAFTA agreement for refusing since 1995 to allow Mexican trucks to operate long-haul routes between U.S. and Mexican destinations. Under this policy the approximately 5 million commercial trucks crossing the Mexican border each year were only allowed to drive 25 miles into U.S. territory before having to transfer their loads to trucks with drivers employed in the United States.

The first to be elected in 71 years who was not a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Fox has made several other moves since assuming the presidency. He announced the closure of four army bases in the southeastern state of Chiapas, where peasants and Indians have been carrying out a fight for their rights and where the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) is based. The Mexican president has also promised freedom for 18 jailed EZLN members, and sent to Congress a bill based on a peace accord signed with the Zapatistas in 1996, which according to the Financial Times "for four years had floated in a political no-man's land."

The new Mexican president is also seeking to make inroads on the right of small Mexican peasants to hold onto their land. The country's new agriculture minister, Javier Usabiaga, is dubbed the "garlic king" because his corporate farming operation controls 97 percent of Mexico's garlic exports.

Usabiaga is proposing what he calls a "new rural society," in which small farmers will be encouraged to sell or rent out their land. His aim is to drive many of these peasants off their land, consolidating ownership in the hands of wealthy landlords and capitalists. The issue of land was at the center of the Mexican revolution in the early 1900s that carried out a major redistribution of arable land from wealthy ranch owners to landless peasants. It became illegal to own more than 100 hectares. Today, more than half of all farmers still own five hectares or less (1 hectare = 2.47 acres).

The minister argues that these small farmers have become "lazy" as a result of government subsidies. "My father always told me, 'Never sow what you cannot sell.' It is more important to know how to sell than how to sow," he stated.

Towards this end, Usabiaga plans to encourage poor farmers to stop planting corn, which constitutes Mexico's staple food and occupies 70 percent of the country's farm land. He calls instead for training them to cultivate fruits and vegetables for sales in a more specialized market.
 
 
Related article:
U.S. companies expand investments in Mexico plants  
 
 
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