On the one hand, Mexico looks in the mirror of Bolivia to ensure the exploitation of lithium applying the model of Evo Morales. On the other hand, the ties between the former president of the South American country and the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador go beyond some political coincidences and are irreversible since the crisis of 2019. With these premises, the indigenous leader has called this Friday to protect control of the mineral because its industry, it has affirmed, “must be in the hands of the States, not of the private sector”. The man who ruled Bolivia for more than a decade and changed the foundations of its production system has also linked the management of this natural resource with its overthrow.
It was as a result of his resignation and departure from the country two years ago that Morales landed in Mexico City as an asylee before settling in Argentina. This week he returned to inaugurate a seminar of the Labor Party (PT), he met with the chancellor. Marcelo Ebrard, and today with López Obrador, who has received him at the National Palace as “the most authentic representative of the original peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.” The ex-president, applauded by dozens of representatives of the Latin American left, not only affirmed that Mexico “saved his life”, but also spoke about one of the issues that currently most interests the Mexican Executive.
Morales has referred to energy policy during a press conference. “We decided, as a State, to industrialize lithium. We hired experts … and we started the big industry and there comes the coup d’état. American congressmen recognize that the coup was due to lithium ”, he has launched, also going to accuse Tesla, the main manufacturer of electric cars in the world. For this sector, lithium is a crucial raw material since it is used to manufacture batteries for electronic equipment, among other uses.
The regulation of the exploitation of the mineral is now included in the electricity reform initiative that López Obrador sent to Congress for debate and approval. This is a key bet of his political project -which in a first attempt was stuck between appeals in the courts- which essentially intends to increase the prominence of a parastatal company, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), but also contemplates granting the public sector control of lithium. In practice, if no changes are made to this section, the new law puts a barrier to new private concessions, promises to respect those that were granted in the past and are already operating, although it leaves a limbo to those that have not yet they have begun the exploration of the terrain.
This reform has a special impact with a view to the future, since in 2018 a foreign company, Bacanora Lithium, controlled by the Chinese company Gangfeng, found in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Sonora what has been described by industry analysts as the most lithium deposit. extensive of the world. López Obrador and the party that supports the government, Morena, need the support of the PRI to approve the reform, but the president has warned that he is determined to protect their exploitation without any kind of nuance. “Advancement, so that you do not have any illusions about lithium, that if there is an act of treason against the homeland and it is not approved that the lithium is in the hands of the nation, in any case we are going to deny any request for a concession for the exploitation of lithium, and we have the power to do so, “he assured at a press conference earlier this month.
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