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| Hmmmm.....no comment. |
I guess it's like my knee Doc said, "What did you expect?!"
~ From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
Mexico Criticizes U.S. For Slow Efforts In Central America While Speeding Aid To Ukraine
March 22, 2022
"Mexico has criticized the United States for being able to make quick moves to aid Ukraine while allowing investment in Central America to stall over bureaucratic issues.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference on March 22 that Washington “has just authorized resources [for Ukraine], and that is fine because it is its policy to protect Ukraine.”
“But that was approved by the U.S. Congress in I think two days, and the support for the Central American brothers is already for four years and it's not approved," he said.
"The relationship is very good,” he said of Mexico’s ties with the United States. “But there is also a lot of bureaucracy there.”
Lopez Obrador has long pressed U.S. leaders to boost investment in Central America to help tackle the causes of migration.
U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged at least $4 billion to promote development in the region and in southern Mexico, from where many immigrants leave in hopes of eventually crossing into the United States.
Washington has dedicated billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine as it has battled an unprovoked invasion by Russian forces over the past four weeks."
Based on reporting by Reuters
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"There is also a lot of bureaucracy there" ? LMFAO. What a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black ! Speaking of bureaucracy, it is unknown how much longer the water or electricity will actually stay on at SADM - although they told us over a year ago everything was fixed...right !
When I read this to Mike he said, "Doesn't he understand there is a fucking war going on because of his maniac war criminal amigo Putin?" Yep, I bet the oligarchs in Mexico are freaking out...check out the security dinero alone for Ukraine to date - haha, and most likely mas on the way.
Interesting:
~ From: NGI:
Column: the Russian Ukraine Crisis Underlines How Mexico Needs To Up Energy Security
"In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri exposed Mexico’s dependence on natural gas imports from Texas. The lack of gas storage facilities, the poor diversification of supply sources, and the inability to raise domestic production became evident. A year later, public discussion around infrastructure dedicated to energy security remains at a standstill. The expected storage projects did not occur, domestic production is stagnant, and gas imports are at all-time highs. A new crisis in Europe, this time geopolitical, has caused nervousness and concerns among market agents about the availability of natural gas and its price.
Some have compared Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas to that of Mexico on U.S. gas. The behavior of the European electricity market this winter with marginal prices directly related to the price of natural gas also sows doubts about Mexico’s reliance on gas for power generation. In a context in which the López Obrador government seeks to reverse the opening of the energy sector, high electricity prices in places like Spain also serve as an argument against private sector competition in the energy marketplace.
Due to the current war crisis, President López Obrador on Thursday said that, if necessary, Mexico would resort to fuels other than natural gas to generate electricity. It’s interesting that in the open parliament triggered by López Obrador’s reform initiative, the spokesman for the government’s position argued that Russia’s Gazprom was a model to follow. The aberrations in Texas and Spain observed in 2021 would not occur if Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) were in charge of guaranteeing access to energy, he argued.
This position is not very sensitive to the economic reality of the relationship between Mexico and the United States. The connectivity of the Mexican gas network with 24 import points has provided the country with a substantial improvement in its energy security compared to a decade ago. Dependence on Pemex production put the country in an almost permanent situation of “critical alerts” in the natural gas segment.
The gas network operated almost exclusively by Pemex did not have redundancies to bring gas to the main cities of the country. Service coverage on the northwest Pacific coast, in the States of Zacatecas and Colima was never in Pemex’s commercial intentions. El Bajío, an area whose economic activity has been linked to trade with the United States, had frequent gas supply interruptions.
Mexico’s energy security improved thanks to gas from Texas. By citing last winter’s problem as an example of vulnerability, the government ignores the hoarding that state-owned companies have over the capacity of the import pipelines. In an environment in which physical and commercial operations are governed by contracts and not by political tactics, the risk of supply interruption due to an order from President Biden is minimal compared to the risk presented by the concentration of transportation capacity of Pemex and CFE.
Today, with the hoarding of capacity in the import pipelines, the nomination and programming of import volumes largely depend on bureaucratic decisions. A market environment with more diversified capacity allocations would lead to a decentralization of business decisions. With this diversity, the probability of a widespread supply interruption would diminish.
Regarding the winter management of the European electricity market, critics within the government claim that speculation and the search for profit cause price volatility. In this value judgment they do not take into account that the conditions of gas scarcity were a consequence of Gazprom’s strategic behavior in managing gas inventories in European territory.
The concentration of capacity makes such manipulation possible. In addition, the service managed not to be interrupted thanks to the benefits of the market. The flexibility of the contracts associated with the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from North America made it possible to divert shipments destined for Asia to European destinations.
On the other hand, the operational rigidity of Gazprom, which seeks to operate a gas pipeline at the same time that it markets the gas it transports, prevented the timely regulatory authorization of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline by the German authorities. Gazprom’s resistance to open access prevented the availability of a new source that could have alleviated winter shortages.
Open access as stipulated in the Hydrocarbons Law should allow marketers to maximize efficiency. But the Comisión Reguladora de Energía (CRE) has given its consent so that the principle of “use it or lose it” is not applicable to CFE.
For its part, Cenagas has authorized CFE to transport new routes on the Sistrangas on a firm basis without an open season occurring. The López Obrador government is thus revealing the type of energy industry they want: one more aligned with the Russian statist paradigm than with the North American market. This vision makes the country more insecure in energy terms. In the long run, in an international environment of growing tensions, this alignment could cause a disagreement in the North American region between countries that should continue to be partners, as they have been for 30 years.
Mexico is no longer the only destination for surplus gas production in the United States. A global market encouraged by the new configuration of the world order makes it increasingly attractive to invest in liquefaction trains to bring LNG to Europe. Mexico’s government is risking a beneficial trade relationship for nothing. In the process, it is losing energy security."
Prud’homme was central to the development of Cenagas, the nation’s natural gas pipeline operator, an entity formed in 2015 as part of the energy reform process. He began his career at national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), worked for 14 years at the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), rising to be chief economist, and from July 2015 through February served as the ISO chief officer for Cenagas, where he oversaw the technical, commercial and economic management of the nascent Natural Gas Integrated System (Sistrangas). Based in Mexico City, he is the head of Mexico energy consultancy Gadex.
*****
This is certainly not the first criticism of Biden's US Policies from AMLO: (And ask yourselves, why was it that he never that I can recall criticized Trump? He loved Trump. So BS - a jab here and another there and another there all the while with his hand out for more financial assistance in any form he could get i.e. COVID vaccines, etc...Bullshit.
~ From Foreign Policy:
Why Has AMLO Accused USAID of a "Coup Against Mexico"?
By Ann Deslandes, a freelance writer and researcher based in Mexico City.
June 5, 2021, 1:52 PM
*****
A sort of instant replay from last June:
~ From the Hill:
Mexican President Calls on US to Stop Funding Groups Critical of His Administration
By Rafael Bernal - 02/21/22 04:22 PM EST
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He even went after Blinken, who BTW, did not even BLINK and since this last month's report, the murders of Mexican Journalists has increased - check Zeta Tijuana.
~ From Bloomberg:
Mexico's AMLO Criticizes Blinken's Tweet On Journalist Murders
By,