Electricity Reform Rejected/New Initiative to Nationalize Lithium

Electricity  reform is rejected. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he was disappointed that the energy reform was not approved and accused those who voted against it of defending private companies. “Yesterday an act of treason was committed against our nation by a group of legislators, who instead of defending the interests of Mexican citizens became defenders of foreign companies. It is a shame what happened."

Yesterday, the Chamber of Deputies voted against López Obrador's electricity reform, aimed at strengthening CFE over private companies and leave the exploitation of lithium in the hands of the government. There were 275 votes in favor, 223 against and 0 abstentions. Despite having more votes in favor, the reform failed to pass because it did not have the sufficient votes to reach a qualified majority, which requires the support of two-thirds of the Chamber.

Reform to change the Mining Law. López Obrador stressed that even though the electricity reform did not pass, another initiative has been sent to Congress to nationalize lithium. “We were prepared for this betrayal to happen since we knew there were others trying to manipulate the vote. That is why we defined a strategy from the beginning to protect lithium no matter what happened. Our plan B is to change the Mining Law so that lithium does not fall in the hands of private companies.”

The new reform to the Mining Law seeks to guarantee Mexico´s self-determination and energy sovereignty through the nationalization of lithium and other strategic minerals. The reform proposes not to grant concessions, contracts, licenses, permits or authorizations to any private company interested in lithium. In addition, it commissions the Mexican Geological Service to find deposits rich in lithium and create a method to extract the mineral as soon as possible. The reform to the Mining Law is expected to be discussed and voted on today.

New migratory measures on the Mexico-US border. López Obrador criticized the inspections ordered by Texas authorities on the US-Mexico border, which seek to control migration. “These are meaningless measures. Nevertheless, we are not going to respond to these disproportionate measures n. Let's hope they do not act like that again."

Following the US government’s announcement that it will suspend the Title 42 policy in May, US authorities expect an increase in the arrival of migrants to the US-Mexico border.  Consequently, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the implementation of new immigration measures. One of the measures is to thoroughly check trailers coming from Mexico to make sure there are no hidden people trying to cross the border. The measure has been widely criticized  because it has increased traffic on the border, causing economic losses to Mexican companies.

Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish