In a show of force, some 1,000 Mexican police agents raided the Mexico City headquarters of Luz y Fuerza del Centro in the early hours of Sunday morning, October 11.
The government of President Felipe Calderón had decreed the liquidation of the publicly owned firm that provides electricity for Mexico City and surrounding states in central Mexico, and the firing of its more than 40,000 workers, members of the Mexican Electricians Union (SME). Unless reversed by the legislature or the courts, the decree removes from SME’s rolls two-thirds of its membership, a body blow to the SME bureaucracy, from which it may never recover.
The National Electricity Commission (CFE,) a government agency will oversee the dismantling of the firm and the provision of electricity to this important region, which is responsible for more than one third of Mexico’s economic output. Its power plants and transmission lines provide electrical power for Mexico City and four central states, home to more than 25 million people, nearly 24 percent of the population. Luz y Fuerza del Centro purchases some its electricity from the CFE power grid.
Calderón defended the legality of his actions (a decree issued in the middle of the night without consultation with the legislature) in a televised speech on Sunday night. He claimed that the utility was too expensive to operate in the context of the economic crisis afflicting the country.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/luzy-o15.shtml
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