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Union says Mexican utility shut down to benefit multinationals
Mexico City, Nov 25, 2009 (EFE via COMTEX) --
The SME union representing Mexican
electrical workers said Wednesday that the government's motive in
shutting down state-owned utility Luz y Fuerza del Centro was to
benefit well-connected foreign companies such as Spain's Iberdrola
and Repsol and Techint of Argentina.
Those companies, according to union chief Martin Esparza, want to
get their hands on LyFC's distribution network in and around the
Mexican capital.
Shortly after midnight on Oct. 11, Mexican President Felipe
Calderon signed a decree dissolving LyFC, sending soldiers and
police to occupy the company's installations and expel the few
workers then on duty.
LyFC served some 25 million people in Mexico City and parts of
four states, a region accounting for a third of the country's gross
domestic product, Esparza noted Wednesday.
He repeated the union's earlier complaint that Calderon's
right-wing National Action Party gave a foreign firm access to
LyFC's fiber-optic network while obstructing the state utility's
attempt to implement an SME proposal to use the firm's grid to offer
a package of television, Internet and telephone services.
Contending that the government's ultimate aim is privatizing the
electricity industry, Esparza said more than 40 percent of power
generation was already in private hands thanks to special "permits"
granted by the administrations of Calderon and predecessor Vicente
Fox.
Officially, the state-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad
retains a monopoly throughout Mexico, apart from the region served
until recently by LyFC.
The SME and its supporters have mounted large protests in the
capital - one was attended by more than 150,000 people - to demand
that Calderon revoke his decree dissolving LyFC and leaving its
44,504 employees jobless. EFE
act/dr
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