It's just a coincidence that it's important for their boy to win this election. That crazy socialist Obrador wants to use Mexico's wealth for the Mexican people's benefit, so of course they voted for the BFEE.
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Some analysts say . . . Mr. Calderón . . . would be preferred by many U.S. officials . . . "Definitely, from a Washington perspective, it would be easier to work with someone like Calderón . . "The PAN is a relatively conservative party and shares an economic philosophy with the White House . . . Mr. Calderón, 43, is a free-market proponent. He promotes lower taxes,
more private investment in the government-controlled energy sector . . .
In the debate, Mr. Calderón touched on some of the themes near and dear to Washington, such as investing more money in oil exploration to keep Mexico, one of the U.S.'s biggest suppliers, from running out of crude in the next decade. . . .
Traditionally, the Mexican government has dumped oil profits into the government's general fund to pay for everything from education to roads. Mr. Calderón said the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, should reinvest those funds in exploration before its current oil fields dry up. . .
In February, Mexico was the No. 1 foreign supplier of crude oil to the U.S., averaging nearly 1.8 million barrels per day. Normally, Mexico is No. 2 or 3, behind Saudi Arabia and Canada. end>
http://www.kvue.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/mexico/elections/stories/042706dnintdebate.ed2ebbb.html<snip>
Left-of-center candidate Andres Lopez Obrador wants to de-emphasize production of crude oil and focus instead on refined products such as gasoline and plastics, while his main challenger, conservative Felipe Calderon, proposes opening the industry to foreign oil corporations to help increase crude exports.
Calderon, candidate of the pro-business National Action Party (PAN), says that foreign companies, which are allowed only as contractors providing oil-field services such as drilling, seismic work and infrastructure construction, should be allowed to enter into joint-production agreements with Pemex.
Lopez Obrador defends the ban on most foreign investment and has pledged to build three gasoline refineries and boost petrochemical production. He notes that Mexico annually spends $4.5 billion in gasoline imports and nearly $10 billion in petrochemical imports, mainly from the United States. Pemex has made no significant refining investments in 20 years, and none in petrochemicals in 15 years.
In Tabasco, engineers who have been fired from the company complain that Pemex under the Fox administration has unnecessarily given billions of dollars of service contracts to U.S. companies such as Bechtel, Halliburton and Schlumberger.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/30/MNGAAJN9JG1.DTL