Mexico City, March 19 (teleSUR-RHC) Marking the 77th anniversary since Mexico nationalized its energy sector, dissident workers of the state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), union members and social organizations protested on Wednesday throughout the country against a recent structural energy reform.
The reform, proposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto and passed last year, opens the sector up to privatization, which opponents call unconstitutional given that the country’s massive oil reserves are considered national patrimony.
In the southern state of Oaxaca, educators from Section 22 of the National Teacher’s Union blocked at least 8 Pemex gas stations near the state capital and refinery installations near the coast.
In the southernmost state of Chiapas, teacher union members and students from the state’s teacher-training college blockaded the installations of an oil storage facility.
In the central states of Michoacan and Mexico City, teachers and Pemex workers also held different protests. The teachers joined a 24-hour strike called by dissident sections of the National Teacher’s Union (SNTE) and the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE).
At the Mexico City tomb of former president Lazaro Cardenas, who made the decree to nationalize the energy sector in 1938 to guarantee Mexico’s sovereignty, his son Cuauhtemoc Cardenas participated in a ceremony marking the historic date.
