24-07-2014: Latin American Weekly Report

The concluding phase of Mexico’s landmark energy reform – a combination of 21 new secondary bills and amendments to existing laws, which are intended to open up the country’s oil and gas sector to foreign investors – appeared this week to be progressing relentlessly through congress. For some, the apparently irresistible advance of the pro-reform steamroller, led by the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and the opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), confirms the divisions and impotence of the Mexican Left. Others say the Left is still in the game, and may yet be able to block or significantly alter the proposed shake-up of the oil and gas sector.