Adolfo López Mateos and the nationalization of the Electrical Industry

by Luis Guzmán | Jan 22, 2024 | Activism, Libre Software, Politics

I find it very interesting for me to know the history behind my country, how we got to where we are as well as those personalities who changed the course of our history as a country and society.

Great personalities such as Miguel Hidalgo, Morelos, the Flores Magón brothers, Madero, Lazaro Cardenas among many other great leaders who shaped this great nation.

Today, after listening to the president’s morning conferences, I met an actor in our history that I knew little about and I am surprised by the vision that this president had, who for a long time was in historical anonymity for me.

We are talking about Adolfo López Mateos and his letter addressed to the people of Mexico once the Nationalization of the Electrical Industry was concluded in 1960, during the month of September, one of the most patriotic months in Latin America.

His achievement as well as his vision for the future gives us new generations a point of reference to be able to understand the challenges and dangers that we face in the face of a policy of privatization at a global level and in which it only makes inequality more marked and oppresses the many for the benefit of the few.

Without further ado, here is the text, a translation of it actually:

“People of México.

I give you back the electricity, which is the exclusive property of the Nation, but do not trust because in future years some bad Mexicans identified with the worst causes of the country will try by subtle means to hand over the oil and our resources to foreign investors.

Not a step back, was the speech of Don Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, when nationalizing our oil. Today it was fortunately its turn to electric energy. People of Mexico, I excuse you from all obedience to your future rulers who intend to hand over our energy resources to interests outside the Nation that we make up.

One obvious thing is that Mexico requires several years of technological evolution and administrative efficiency to achieve our energy independence; It would be foolish to affirm that Mexico does not require technological training in electrical and oil matters. But to do this, no foreigner needs to become a shareholder in public companies to support us. Only a traitor gives his country to foreigners; We Mexicans can do everything better than any other country.

When a foreign ruler asks me if there is a possibility of entering the energy or electricity business, I answer that we are just becoming independent from the foreign invasions that emptied our country.

But in the meantime, we Mexicans do want to invest in American oil or in its electric energy production, in case they want a foreign partner. In Mexico, the Constitution is very clear: energy resources and oil fields are in perpetuity the sole and exclusive property of the Mexican people. The rest of the speculations in this regard are treason.

Industrializing the country does not imply a public auction of our natural resources, nor the indiscriminate delivery of the country’s heritage.”

Adolfo Lopez Mateos – September 27, 1960

With the current government, control of the energy industry has been regained, which was in a rapid trend of disappearing in favor of foreign, as well as national, private initiative, and the issue is that energy sovereignty is too important to be handed over to a private sector.

In the Free Software topics that I like to comment on so much, I think we can easily make the parallel, the freedom of the software we use in an era that increasingly depends on digital interaction is too important to give it up with our eyes closed to private industries.

In 1991 we were given the GNU system with the Linux kernel, the first complete free software operating system. And over time with subtle means little by little the integration of more and more proprietary software has been granted in the main GNU/Linux distributions throughout the world, with only a handful that continue to strive to maintain complete freedom of the software they distribute , Trisquel being one of them.

Hence, it is important to know and support the vision of the GNU project through support for the FSF and sister organizations such as the FSFLA, to defend digital freedom, sovereignty and human rights in this new era, over the subtle trends that attempt to convert users into dependents/servants of their will or of the “invisible hand of the Market“.

Today is the time to take action and be responsible for our freedom!

The more people resist, the more people will be Free, and the more people will be free to be Free. For your own good, and in solidarity to all, choose freedom.

Be Free!