Inadmissible, pressure from Spain in favor of transnationals: Bartlett

Andrea Becerril

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday March 26, 2022, p. 3

It is inadmissible that the Spanish government tries to pressure Mexico so that the electrical constitutional reform is not approved and comes out in defense of the Spanish multinationals that have illegally obtained millions of dollars, through the looting of public resources and the corruption that allowed them to the past administrations of the Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) and National Action (PAN) parties, said the director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), Manuel Bartlett Díaz.

In response to the warning issued from Madrid by the Secretary of State for Ibero-America, Juan Fernández Trigo, that the government of the socialist Pedro Sánchez will react very clearly In the event that the electrical reform of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is approved in Congress, the head of the CFE said that this threat will not stop a policy in defense of national interests and sovereignty.

In interview with the dayBartlett Díaz stressed that both this official and his boss, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares – who was recently in Mexico – seem to be unaware that Iberdrola and the other Spanish companies that generate energy in the country have acted illegal, and Through traps, tricks and other corruption that former presidents Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto allowed them, they formed large businesses at the expense of the treasury.

There could be complaints, even criminal ones, against Spanish companies, said the director of the CFE, and stressed that it is surprising that the Spanish government defends multinationals that have caused serious economic and social problems in their own nation due to the very high rates they charge, since they do not care about the well-being of the Spanish, but about unlimited profits.

Do they perhaps expect a similar situation to occur in Mexico? Of course we are not going to allow it, and through the reform the aim is for the State to regain control of the electrical system, on which the country’s security and well-being depend. the population.

Bartlett Díaz rejected that the reform violates international treaties, as stated by Fernández Trigo. How can they defend investments that are based on corruption and the flagrant violation of Mexican law? How can Fernández Trigo and Minister Albares ask for legal security for their multinationals?I ask.

It is not possible, he said, that they ignore the information that President López Obrador has made public about all the anomalies, the fact that they do not pay for the transmission of electricity, nor the necessary backup, since there is not air or sun all the time. , with which their companies operate, and the CFE must enter immediately and assume the millionaire costs.

If they signed illegal contracts with past governments, these are not untouchable, companies are responsible and subject to lawsuits, including criminal.

-Is that possible?

-Of course. Iberdrola and the other Spanish companies are selling electricity, without having the right to do so. The Supreme Court ruled that this is a crime, because they were given contracts as self-supply companies, which are for groups of people or companies that associate to generate electricity for their own consumption. However, with the collusion of Calderón and Peña Nieto, they took the opportunity to form private monopolies.

He explained that there are 110 self-supply companies, but with more than 1,500 members, who are actually clients, including the country’s large companies, self-service stores, Walmart, the Oxxos, who pay very little for electricity, while this is more expensive for the population, as President López Obrador has exhibited it.

For this reason, now that it is intended to regulate and put an end to this large illegal business, have launched all kinds of pressure to prevent the electricity reform from being approved, including the threat of the Spanish government to defend its corrupt companies.