It is well know that going on a trip and visiting foreign countries is one of the few things that can comfort the soul. In this sense, when one is in power, everything seems uncomfortable at home, while everything outside looks pleasant and inviting.
President Enrique Peña Nieto went to Houston, where he announced that in Mexican fuel will be freed from the market. In other words, when businesses agree with the Secretary of Treasury and Public Finance, Luis Videgaray, gasoline and diesel will cost less in our country.
This fuel will no longer only be provided by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). This marks the end of one of the three monopolies in this sector. The second is the distribution networks. In Mexico, a country of monopolies, these networks control the distribution and control consumption. The third is what the Secretary of Treasury has to do in order to receive money and lose it on public spending.
But now faced with the fall of Pemex, are we also going to get rid of the Special Tax for the Production and Services (IEPS) of fuel? And what are we going to do about the public debt?
The energy reform, the mother of all reforms from Peña Nieto’s term, had bad luck. On one hand, gasoline is becoming a relentless weapon of the United States. On the other hand, every time that we take a step toward liberation, we find discover the reality that we believe in a reform that we were never prepared for.
Now there are also problems between unions and the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). In this sense, it will not be possible to have a reform if the country does restore order with its unions.
At the end of the day, independent of if we lean to the left or right, labor unions are also monopolies, in the hands of few leader who do not want to be in solidarity with the country or their union workers, because their priority is to not lose their privileges.
In this context, being unemployed by the CFE is almost like winning the lottery, because the pension system in Mexican public businesses are an insult. But overall, it is a mortgage for the country, where we are theoretically advancing in the right direction, even though in practice we always forget to analyze everything from a general perspective.
Independent of the oil crisis, the question about the energy reform is: what are we going to do about workers’ unions? Because if we don’t come to an agreement with them about pensions, Mexico will end being undeniably un-reformable.