Mexican oil expropriation

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Fountain of Mexican Petroleum (Monument), in the Paseo de la Reforma and Anillo Periférico, Col. Hills of Chapultepec, delegation Miguel Hidalgo of Mexico City, D.F., Mexico.

The Mexican oil expropriation (

PEMEX. For a short period, this measure caused an international boycott of Mexican products in the following years, especially by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, but with the outbreak of World War II and the alliance between Mexico and the Allies, the disputes with private companies over compensation were resolved.[1] The anniversary, March 18, is now a Mexican civic holiday
.

Background

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Venustiano Carranza, President of Mexico, on the recommendations of the Petroleum Technical Commission, promoted the restitution of the wealth of the subsoil to the nation, which had been yielded during the Porfiriato to the land owners by issuing the issuance of the Code of Minería of 1894 and the law oil company of 1901, both regulations were contrary to Spanish legislative system inherited since colonial times, that had remained in force in Mexico.

On August 16, 1935, the Petroleum Workers Union of Mexico (Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros de la República Mexicana) was formed and one of the first actions was the writing of a lengthy draft contract transmitted to the petroleum companies demanding a

40-hour working week, a full salary paid in the event of sickness, and the payment of 65 million pesos towards benefits and wages. The foreign oil companies refused to sign the agreement, and counter offered with a payment of 14 million pesos toward wages and benefits.[2]

On November 3, 1937, the union demanded that the companies sign the collective agreement and on May 17, the union summoned a strike in case their demands were not met. On May 28 the strike became effective throughout the country.

The petroleum workers' struggle was well regarded by the President and the population despite problems caused by the petroleum shortage. Due to these problems, the union accepted a lift of the strike on June 9, after the president urged them to present their case before the General Arbitration and Conciliation Board (Junta General de Conciliación y Arbitraje). In July, as instructed by the arbitration board, a commission of financial experts was formed that investigated the petroleum companies' finances, concluding that their profits easily permitted them to cover the demands of the workers. The report stated that just one company (El Aguila) had received annual profits of over 55 million pesos. The arbitration board concluded that the oil companies should pay 26 million pesos for wages and benefits to the workers.[3] The companies, however, insisted the demands would cripple production and bankrupt them, and refused to pay. The president once again intervened to mediate between the parties, and met with oil company representatives at the

Mexican treasury, and taxes were saved.[4]

Lázaro Cárdenas del Río
, president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940, implemented a nationalist policy, interceded during the conflict between workers and companies repeatedly, on March 18, 1938, through a speech directed by radio to the nation, released the expropriatory decree.

But, on December 8, the companies hired other unemployed workers and had not responded to the

Mexican Supreme Court
to protect their property from the labor union and arbitration board, which denied the request.

Consequently, the foreign companies rebelled against the imposed contract, and the maximum Judicial Authority responded by rendering a decision on March 1, giving the companies until March 7 to pay the 26 million pesos penalty.

In 1935, all companies in the business of extraction, processing, and exporting of oil in Mexico were foreign companies with foreign capital. These companies attempted to block the creation of

labor unions
and used legal and illegal tactics to do so. However, the creation of individual unions within each company was made possible, but work conditions differed from one another.

On December 27, 1935, the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Petroleros was created, despite the legal opposition in the

states of Tamaulipas and Veracruz. On January 29, 1936, this union joined the Comité de Defensa Proletaria ("Committee of Proletarian Defense") which would become in February the Confederation of Mexican Workers
(CTM). On July 20, the union celebrated its first convention, in which it was proposed a project of general contracts for each oil company and it was decided on a strike to push towards an agreement.

U.S. oil industry
.

Legal conflicts

After the publication of the findings, the oil companies threatened to leave Mexico and take all of their capital with them. The government entity in charge of the conflict between these companies and the union, the Junta Federal de Conciliación y Arbitraje (Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board), was not able to make a decision quickly and the union declared a 24-hour strike in protest on December 8.

On December 18, the Arbitration Board declared in favor of the union. The oil companies had to pay 26 million

Supreme Court. The Supreme Court then rejected the appeal and ordered them to raise salaries and improve working conditions for the union members. The oil companies protested this decision and President Cárdenas mediated a compromise; the union would accept 26 million pesos. Cárdenas offered to end the strike if the oil companies paid the sum. According to witnesses of this meeting, representatives of the oil companies asked the President "Who can guarantee that the strike will be over", to which the President replied "I, the President of the Republic." After the businessmen asked with sarcasm "You?" President Cárdenas ended the meeting saying "Sirs, we are finished!".[5] Cárdenas moved to expropriate
the oil industry and create a national oil company, PEMEX.

Oil Expropriation Day, March 18, 1938

On March 18, 1938 President Cárdenas embarked on the expropriation of all oil resources and facilities by the state, nationalizing the

jewelry.[6] (see photo
).

On June 7, 1938, President Cárdenas issued a decree creating Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), with exclusive rights over exploration, extraction, refining, and commercialization of oil in Mexico. On June 20, PEMEX started operations.

Opposition

International

In retaliation, the oil companies initiated a

oil companies in the world and helped Mexico become the world's seventh-largest oil exporter.[9]

Domestic

communist movements from Europe
would spread to Mexico.

The key to the success of the measures taken by Cárdenas was not just to control the opposition, but to develop and train qualified domestic personnel who could keep afloat an industry that had been maintained thus far by foreign management. The government relied on the

Secretary of State Cordell Hull
that Cárdenas' reforms could not be undone, since his position as president and the position of PEMEX were secure. PEMEX was and remains a source of collective national pride, and is an international symbol of Mexico.

Critics of the expropriation argue that since PEMEX took control of the nation's petroleum, it has suffered from corruption in administrations since that of Cárdenas, and point to its political use by PRI (

Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and the PAN (Partido Accion Nacional). In addition, the casus belli of the expropriation was a wage hike of 26 million pesos. In fact, in the short run following nationalization, not only was the promised wage hike postponed indefinitely, wages were actually cut.[10] A tug of war continues between capitalist strategists who favor privatization and popular support for PEMEX as a nationalization success and the backbone of Mexico's economic independence from manipulation by foreign owners and investors. In 2013 a series of privatization measures were undertaken by the President Peña Nieto; in 2019 attempts to walk back such measures and regain Mexican national control over PEMEX were begun by the populist left government of López Obrador
.

See also

References

  1. ^ Jonathan C. Brown, "Petrolem: Pre-1938" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, p. 1082. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997.
  2. ISBN 968-12-0969-9
    .
  3. ISBN 968-24-6669-5
    .
  4. ISBN 968-24-6669-5
    .
  5. ^ quoted in Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: HarperCollins 1997, p. 474
  6. ^ Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power, p. 475
  7. ^ "How the Allied multinationals supplied Nazi Germany throughout World War II".
  8. ISBN 0826321607
    ;
  9. ^ "Oil - production - Country Comparison".
  10. ^ Daniel Yergin, (2009). "The Prize, the Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power". Free Press

Further reading

  • Brown, Jonathan C. Oil and Revolution in Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press 1993.
  • Brown, Jonathan C. and Alan Knight, eds. The Mexican Petroleum Industry in the Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press 1992.
  • Gordon, Wendell. The Expropriation of Foreign-Owned Property in Mexico (1941)
  • Hall, Linda B. Oil, Banks, and Politics: the United States and Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1917-1924. Austin: University of Texas Press 1995.
  • Jayne, Catherine E. Oil, war, and Anglo-American relations: American and British reactions to Mexico's expropriation of foreign oil properties, 1937-1941 (Praeger, 2001)
  • Maurer, Noel. "The empire struck back: sanctions and compensation in the Mexican oil expropriation of 1938." Journal of Economic History 71.03 (2011): 590–615. online
  • Meyer, Lorenzo. Mexico and the United States in the oil controversy, 1917–1942 (University of Texas Press, 2014)
  • Rippy, Merrill. Oil and the Mexican Revolution. Leiden: Brill 1972.
  • Wirth, John D., ed. Latin American Oil Companies and the Politics of Energy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1985.
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