Global Capitalism and the Neoliberal Privatization of Energy Reserves: A Mexico Case Study

In 2013 state officials operating through the three federal government branches of Mexico mutilated the country's constitution, privatizing upwards of seventy-five percent of the country's hydrocarbon reserves. This article suggests that this neoliberal strategy, carried out by transnationally oriented elites operating through state apparatuses in Mexico (and promoted by officials in Washington and within the International Financial Institutions), is meant to benefit transnational capital. Such drastic change to Mexico's legal order, we argue, in fact violated the country's constitution and symbolized a break with the country's earlier model of development. The federal government's anti-constitutional behavior, specifically its violation of Article 136 of the constitution, provides a legal basis for dismissing top officials from their posts and moving toward a constitutional assembly.