Businessmen defend investments after Mexican president’s remarks

Mexico City, Oct 11 (EFE).- Mexico’s Business Coordinating Council (CCE), representing the business community in the country, defended Monday its investments in the electricity field after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused several companies of trying to seize control over the market.

The CCE said in a statement that in recent decades, the Mexican private sector has followed the government’s guidelines concerning investments in the electricity sector in all respects.

It added that gains for the private sector does not imply losses for public sector’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).

It further stressed that it was not “a zero-sum game” and that the CFE was highly profitable in the transmission and distribution of energy.

The CCE statement came in the backdrop of President Lopez Obrador’s recent defense of his proposal for consitutional reform to reinforce the CFE and prevent private players from taking over the market.

He remarked that they would not expropriate anything, as private companies would have 46 percent of the market, while the remaining would be in the hands of the CFE.

Since taking office in 2018, Lopez Obrador has opposed the energy reform of his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), which opened the sector to private companies, but his attempts to reverse it have been stalled in courts.

Therefore, he sent a constitutional reform initiative to the Congress around the end of September to ensure that the CFE dominates the electricity market in the country, causing oppostition from private firms.

The president defended his move saying it was much required to prevent prices from hitting the roof and private companies from looting the country.

In this regard, the CCE urged the parties in the discussion of the president’s constitutional reform proposal to approach the issue with responsibility and not describe their involvement in the sector as theft or loot. EFE

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