Letters: Oil reform will help Mexico

Re “Mexico’s energy reform is the latest setback for leftists,” Dec. 22

Though many Mexicans still feel resistant to allowing foreign companies to drill for oil in Mexico, the state-run Pemex today is hardly what President Lazaro Cardenas envisioned when he established it in 1938 to provide for the Mexican people.

Indeed, the company has failed utterly in one of its most basic tasks: supplying subsidized, cheap fuel to Mexicans, half of whom live in poverty.

Mexico’s energy reforms are poised to bring desperately needed foreign capital and technical expertise, enabling the country to make the most of its vast hydrocarbon wealth and bring down energy prices. Lower energy prices will help bolster Mexico’s manufacturing sector and lead to job creation.

In addition, more foreign companies will relocate their manufacturing bases to Mexico from China, where energy costs have been rising.

Once these developments become apparent, the voices of dissent will grow even more faint.

Catherine Jayne

Westlake Village

Jayne is the author of “Oil, War, and Anglo-American Relations: American and British Reactions to Mexico’s Expropriation of Foreign Oil Properties, 1937-1941.”

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