Many Mexicans see oil as last frontier against US invasion

MEXICO CITY — Even with oil at $118 a barrel, Mexico’s state-run oil company is losing money.

But a presidential plan to fix Petroleos Mexicanos by inviting foreign help is riling deep-seated emotions over sovereignty – and causing a paralysis that could doom America’s third-largest oil supplier.


Leftist legislators have padlocked the doors of Congress, camping out in the chambers for two weeks in protest. Opponents on the right have attacked them in a national TV ad, invoking images of Adolf Hitler.

Everyone in Mexico – from top leaders to housewives – seems to be swept up in the fervor.

While President Felipe Calderon’s administration calls the congressional lockdown an international embarrassment, Fernanda de Jesus Arriola gives up her afternoon soaps and takes her young children to march in Mexico City.

“Calderon is a right-winger who is going to take away our way of life,” said Arriola, 35, pulling her 6-year-old daughter’s pink Barbie suitcase as her family walked with hundreds of protesters. “It’s the same as strangling us because foreign oil companies are exploiters who will enslave us.”

AP