In general terms, Mexican petroleum was nationalized by president Lázaro Cárdenas in 1938, during a brief period (FDR—Good Neighbor Policy) in which such an action was not likely to draw a U.S. military attack. The national oil company, PEMEX, has controlled most aspects of petroleum exploration, extraction, refining, and sales since that time. Since the first neoliberal governments and especially since Salinas in 1988, there have been attempts to privatize it.

This year, the efforts have been stronger, while advocates say they want a public-private partnership and not privatization. Opponents of privatization, including López Obrador, have threatened massive civil disobedience from the moment that any such proposal is introduced in congress. That time has come, and opposition legislators have been occupying the tribunals of both chambers of congress since yesterday. Brigades of women activists have both buildings surrounded from the outside. The demand of the civil disobeyers is that a three-month debate, in which each of 15 aspects be discussed for a week, be held. The purpose of this is to avoid fast track approval as has happened recently with various wholesale reforms in the areas of pensions, health care, and media (de)regulation. As usual, the people who control the army say the old ladies on the streets are “violent.” That’s all I know for now; it’s the hottest time of year now and I have to get ready for Monday and leave work before the sun beats down harder on my window.

Johnny Hazard lives and writes from Mexico.