Petroleum and Mexico's Future by Pamela S Falk

Author:Pamela S Falk [Falk, Pamela S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781000302141
Google: IK2bDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 46263033
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-05-28T12:10:03+00:00

Part Three

The Implications of an Oil Economy: Benefits, Stakes, and “Petrodependency”

5

The Role of the Oil Industry in Mexico

Mario Ramón Beteta

Introduction: Oil and Sovereignty

Sovereignty is more than an abstract concept; it is exercised in our country, and petroleum is the tangible element of that exercise. In 1986, Mexico's president, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, maintained that economic adversity could be confronted by all of us through working harder, but not in exchange for sovereignty or the supreme course the Mexican people have traced for themselves. The oil community has taken up his words with special emotion and enthusiasm, because they reflect both the origin and the sense of our institution, Petróleos Mexicanos.

The petroleum industry has taken on not only economic importance but political importance as well. Mexico defines and defends itself by way of the Revolution—the true Revolution that translated itself, in a singularly faithful and exact manner, into the expropriation and founding of Petróleos Mexicanos, or PEMEX. Like the Revolution from which they came, the oil expropriation and PEMEX are a result of nationalistic drive, faith in ourselves, and the affirmation of our sovereignty.

In the light of these ideas, the Expropriation Decree of Lázaro Cárdenas acquires full and complete meaning. To dispose of our oil in an exclusive manner—as the sole and indisputable owner—was, is now, and will continue to be a sign and guarantee of independent life. In assuming direct dominion over hydrocarbons, the Mexican state not only rescued for its people this element of progress but confirmed categorically the role the constitution assigned to it as mentor and conductor of our economy. Ours is a mixed economy, just as the constitution stipulates. The government, as depositary of the people's will, oversees the great economic tasks, but it also sees to it that the spheres of public, private, and social initiative remain intact.

Mexico must reduce its dependence on oil. This is a fundamental objective of its long-term development strategy. The government is ready to stimulate the growth of exports and to improve their competitiveness. We will continue to rely on the exchange rate as a basic instrument for the promotion of exports. We need to increase nonoil exports and at the same time limit imports to bare essentials.

In the industrial countries many people resent the decrease in their exports to high-debt countries like Mexico, and they have also begun to feel the competition from Mexico's own exports. Shortsighted protective sentiments have hardened in many quarters, and in many instances, protective measures have been adopted. Witness, for instance, the U.S. actions against Mexican ammonia, gasoline, steel, glass, cement, and carbon black, to name but a few. Of course, world economic recovery and the expansion of world trade temper the temptation of protective barriers in the industrial countries. But growth itself is not enough; a better understanding of the problems of high-debt countries is needed as well.

PEMEX is the largest corporation in the developing world. It is a large-scale, diversified, highly integrated national oil company. Since 1938, PEMEX has had exclusive responsibility over all activities in the Mexican petroleum industry.

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