FURTHER EVIDENCE BUSH AND HIS CRONIES ARE TRYING TO CONTROL OIL, AND POSSIBLY THE WORLD:

Mexico assails Congressional move
Proposal links immigration issues, Pemex

By John Rice, The Associated Press
May 11, 2003

MEXICO CITY -- A Congressional amendment that caused little stir in the United States has created an uproar in Mexico, where newspapers on Saturday accused American lawmakers of arrogance and even blackmail.

The measure, narrowly approved Thursday by the House International Relations Committee, says that any accord on immigration issues with Mexico should include an agreement to open Mexico's state oil company Pemex to U.S. investment.

The nonbinding "sense of Congress" amendment to a broad State Department funding measure went nearly unnoticed in the U.S. news media. It still faces approval by both houses of Congress.

But it created a storm in Mexico. The 1938 nationalization of Pemex is celebrated as a crucial symbol of national pride and is written into the constitution.

President Vicente Fox was once bombarded with criticism for suggesting that Pemex be privatized and has since promised dozens of times to keep the company in state hands.

The Congressional resolution appeared to become a lightning rod for Mexican suspicions about U.S. motives and about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was deeply unpopular here.

"Blackmail in the US: Immigration Accord for Pemex," a leading newspaper, El Universal, said in a front-page headline Saturday.

A rival daily, El Sol, called it "the Halliburton Amendment," referring to the U.S. oil company once headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

An early version of the resolution authored by New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez encouraged negotiations with Mexico on an immigration accord. U.S. President George W. Bush and Fox have both endorsed such talks.

The bill finally approved by the committee, authored by North Carolina Republican Cass Ballenger, still focuses largely on immigration, but says an accord on immigration "should include an accord to open Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to investment by U.S. oil companies."

It said that Pemex "is inefficient, plagued by corruption and in need of substantial reform and private investment" so that it can "fuel future economic growth, which can help curb illegal migration to the United States."

Mexican officials have vowed to crack down on corruption and inefficiency in Pemex since arresting the oil union chief in a military-style raid in 1989.

Fox's administration has tried to draw foreign private investment through a new service contract system drawn to skirt constitutional restrictions.

The federal Justice Department is investigating several current oil union leaders accused of diverting millions of dollars to the losing 2000 presidential campaign of the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Mexico's economy secretary, Fernando Canales Clariond, assured Mexican reporters that Pemex "definitely will not be opened to foreign capital."

Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, widely seen as a possible presidential candidate, also rejected the proposal, saying "the oil belongs to all Mexicans. It's the nation's -- not that of the state or the government."

In its lead editorial, El Universal linked the resolution to post-Iraq-war hubris:

"Swelled by their military victory in Iraq, some sectors in (the United States) are trying to carry out a policy of imposing might over right in all areas of their relationship with the rest of the world."

The newspaper Excelsior referred to "the arrogance of Washington's imperial power, set on the crest of the military victory over Iraq."