German Larrea I would never use the word treason to describe the expropriation of the patios and three railway sections operated by Ferrosur at the Veracruz entrance of the trans-isthmic train last Friday, but that is what happened. Less than 48 hours before he sent 70 sailors to take them, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador spoke with the owner of Grupo México, owner of Ferrosur, about the purchase of Banamex, and they talked, as they have for a long time, about those railway sections. , without there being any sign that he had made the decision to expropriate them, in the largest force action against the private sector in the six-year term.
The President’s appetite for those stretches was satisfied by capping off a week full of conflicts and demonstrations of force, where his emblematic works were in the center of attention. The presidential action, according to the decree, was disguised as a “temporary occupation”, which fueled confusion in public opinion, but also raised doubts about its scope and what it meant for the lawyers of Grupo México, whose executives met last Friday. with the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López.
In that meeting, which did not reach any conclusion, they spoke specifically about the concession of the railway section that goes from Coatzacoalcos to Medias Aguas, which in Friday’s decree explains that it was taken by the government “to eliminate failures and inefficiencies in the transport, storage and distribution chains”, as well as for “facilitate and expedite the movement of goods between the ports of Coatzacoalcos and Salina Cruz”.
The decree, however, hides the different steps that were taken in nearly three years of negotiations between Grupo México with the Ministries of the Interior and of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, initiated by López Obrador’s obsession to obtain the return of the concession to Ferrosur since the trans-isthmian train project began in June 2020. Lopez Obrador he raised it to Larrea, who responded that it could not occur automatically because there were fiduciary obligations and with the investors, for which a consideration would be required and the construction, he offered, of a parallel path. Although the head of the president is, as he has said to various businessmen, that they have to return what they have profited in previous administrations without measuring compensationbegan negotiations between the government and Grupo México.
The talks began with Rafael Marin Mollinedo -cousin of the famous Nico, his assistant, bodyguard, and who drove the white Tsuru that for years transported López Obrador-, who was director of Urban Services in the president’s government when he governed Mexico City, and responsible for the project. take out, Marin Mollinedo He said that the new project would include rail passenger transport, so the track would have to be renewed and he decided to put it out to tender. In doing so he suspended the regular operation of the Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuantepec.
The FIT, a state company whose operation was leased to Ferrosur (Ferrocarril del Sureste) since 2007, operated without problem until June 2020, when the rehabilitation of the tracks began. At the end of 2021 he signed with Grupo México an agreement to hand over the concession of the Coatzacoalcos-Medias Aguas stretch, in exchange for consideration for the company, which will take into account the investments made in this section and the reality of the rail freight market. The ministries of the Interior and of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation participated in the agreement, and contemplated the return of the concession, through an economic payment and for Ferrosur to continue providing the service.
The agreement was not accepted by Lopez Obrador and the negotiations returned to zero point, at the insistence of the president who wanted the return of the concession outright, which Grupo México could not accept due to the fiduciary duties and responsibilities to its shareholders, as Larrea himself had previously informed him. López Obrador was exasperated with Marin Mollinedonot only because of the length of the negotiation with Grupo México, but also because of the insistence of the Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Jose Raphael Ojedathat the expeditious way to continue with the trans-isthmic project was, precisely, taking away the concession from Ferrosur.
Marin Mollinedo he lost the battle with the Navy, and was removed from his position. The Navy took control of the project in October of last year, which exacerbated the pressures and increased the demands of Admiral Ojeda to keep the Coatzacoalcos-Medias Aguas section, where the Ferrosur section begins, which is part of the railway network. from Grupo Mexico.
He decreed Friday is a new coup from the president on the table. The expropriation was not necessary because the right of way was held by the FIT, and negotiations between Grupo México and the government continued to reach an agreement acceptable to both parties. It even transpired that during the meeting that López Obrador had with Larrea last Wednesday to talk about the purchase of Banamex, they touched the point of Ferrosur again, but within the context of ongoing negotiations. The talks were interrupted when last Friday, at six in the morning, 70 sailors seized the railway yards of Coatzacoalcos and Medias Aguas, in an action that Grupo México described on Friday as “surprising and unusual.”
It is not at all strange that López Obrador spoke with Larrea and did not anticipate the action that was coming. The business sector is the main ideological enemy of the president and during the six-year term he has used all means of coercion against him. Among his historical enemies there are some he hates more, such as the case of Larrea, against whom he ordered the SAT to investigate his finances and tax compliance to try to break him. The expropriation suggests that they found nothing, but the blow has been dealt, with a message not only to him, but to all investors, although this is not something that really matters to the president.
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#betrayal #Larrea