“In Mexico, public power and popular sovereignty must defend Indigenous peoples’ rights”, 12 October 2023

Sixty years after the initial nationalisation of the electricity industry, attempts at reforming the energy sector to achieve greater independence, public control and energy sovereignty have been shut down by supporters of the private oligarchy. The struggle for public ownership and a just energy transition continues…

In January 2022, 76.4 per cent of electricity generation was based on fossil fuels…

In April AMLO [Mexico´s president] announced a $6bn purchase of the bulk of Spanish private firm Iberdrola’s Mexican generating assets, including 12 combined cycle generation power plants and one wind farm….

For decades, Indigenous groups have highlighted the problems of privatised renewable energy projects in Mexico. Among the most well-known and contested projects are the wind farms in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec…

In an attempt to provide an alternative to privately-owned wind parks, the Ixtepec community of Oaxaca developed its own community-owned wind farm…. However, the government refused to grant permission for the project… Instead, private company Enel Green Power was granted permission for the construction of a wind farm….

A democratically organised and publicly owned energy sector, alongside popular sovereignty over lithium and other transition-related resources, is crucial to enable Mexico to move towards renewable energies…

Reforms pertaining to the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Mexicans are necessary to recognise Indigenous communities as ‘sujetos de derecho público’ (bearers of public rights). This, in turn, would constitutionalise autonomous forms of government, communal landholding and the right of Indigenous peoples to co-govern the natural resources and mineral wealth of their lands. The recognition of these diverse forms of governance are necessary to move beyond the neoliberal and exploitative structure of Mexico’s energy market and achieve a just energy transition for all its inhabitants…