LARC Fellow Dr. Amie Kiddle will present research as part of the Calgary Association of Lifelong Learners (CALL) Latin American Issues series on Oct 4 1:30-3pm at the Rosedale Community Hall 901 - 11 Ave NW. Free and open to the public.
Following a protracted labour conflict between Mexico’s petroleum workers and U.S. and Anglo-Dutch oil companies operating in Mexico, President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940) decreed the expropriation of these companies’ interests on March 18, 1938, creating the national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). This presentation will examine the history of the Mexican expropriation, which represents a landmark in Mexican and international energy history. Beginning in 1938, Mexico was at the forefront of state-led energy development in Latin America, but in the context of the declining oil production, rampant corruption, and inefficiency plaguing the Mexican oil industry in recent decades, the government has now decided to end its oil monopoly, abandoning the country’s long history of sovereign control over in the extraction of this national asset. Ironically, the Mexican government is now inviting the successors of the very companies that were expropriated in 1938 to cooperate in the development of Mexico’s natural resources.
For information on the partnership between CALL and LARC, visit larc.ucalgary.ca/projects or CALL.
