Mexican leftist back on streets in oil protest

MEXICO CITY, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Eighteen months after he crippled the capital with protests over a 2006 election defeat, Mexican leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was back on the street on Sunday to protect the state monopoly on oil.

Obrador, who says he was robbed of the presidency by electoral fraud in July 2006, mustered thousands of protesters outside state oil firm Pemex’s 52-story headquarters to slam fledgling proposals to allow private investment in oil.


The firebrand leftist told the crowd that if rallies did not work, they would take over the Mexico City airport, highways and the stock exchange and hold a national strike.

“We do not accept anything to do with privatization of Pemex or sharing oil profits,” he told a cheering crowd.

Reuters