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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2008 
Mexico's PRI May Slow Congress Unless Cardenas Fired
 Adriana Lopez Caraveo & Andres R. Martinez - Bloomberg
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| | Agriculture minister Alberto Cardenas | | |
Mexico's largest opposition party stepped up pressure on President Felipe Calderon to fire his agriculture minister, threatening to delay proposed legislation, including a plan to revamp the state oil company.
Unless Calderon removes Alberto Cardenas, he risks having his plans "bogged down," said Hector Padilla, a lawmaker from the Institutional Revolutionary Party and head of the agriculture committee. The party says Cardenas failed to win bigger agricultural subsidies and restrict imports of U.S. sugar and corn, depressing prices for farmers in Mexico.
Calderon needs the PRI's support on legislation to open up the state-controlled oil industry to private and foreign investment, a change that officials at Petroleos Mexicanos say is needed to stem declining output and exploration. The PRI last year provided the votes to pass Calderon's tax and pension reforms.
"We trust in the president," Padilla said during a press conference in Mexico City. "But if we don't advance on this, we aren't going to advance on other matters."
Cardenas told a joint session of Congress today that he won't resign. Lawmakers from the PRI and Party of the Democratic Revolution said he didn't protect Mexican farmers when the North American Free Trade Agreement opened the Mexican market on Jan. 1.
To contact the reporters on this story: Adriana Lopez Caraveo in Mexico City at adrianalopez(at)bloomberg.net; Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at amartinez28(at)bloomberg.net |
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