Skip to main content
Support
Article

Will blast at Mexico oil company shift opinions on privatization? - Mexico Institute in the News

Duncan Wood

Mexico Institute Director Duncan Wood spoke to The Christian Science Monitor about last week's Pemex blast. “More recently opinion polls have suggested there has been a significant softening of those attitudes,” he said. “What all this really depends on is how ambitious the government wants to be.”

The Christian Science Monitor

President Enrique Peña Nieto wants to open the troubled company to private investment. Pemex suffers from multiple problems. It is saddled with an antiquated bureaucracy and declining production, has little flexibility to invest in its installations, and lacks the advanced technology needed to access hard-to-reach oil. The company’s dubious safety record will also likely be central to the debate.

Mexicans remain divided on the issue, although opinions are shifting. As recently as 2008, 76 percent of respondents in a survey by researcher center CIDE opposed privatization, according to Duncan Wood, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center’s Mexico Institute.

“More recently opinion polls have suggested there has been a significant softening of those attitudes,” Mr. Wood says. “What all this really depends on is how ambitious the government wants to be.”

Speaking to the media Tuesday night, Mr. Murillo Karam, the attorney general, described the blast as “diffuse, slow, horizontal and perfectly defined,” characteristic of a gas explosion. He dismissed the possibility of a targeted attack, including a bomb.

Read more...

About the Author

Duncan Wood

Duncan Wood

Vice President for Strategy & New Initiatives; Senior Advisor to the Mexico Institute
Read More

Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.   Read more