Mexico's mining and petroleum policies under AMLO

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors critically analyse Mexico’s extractive policies and mega-development projects during the first three years of the administration of the current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Mexico is often portrayed as an exemplar of extractivism in its classical form of silver and gold mining in the context of European colonialism and extractive imperialism. While a number of governments in South America turned away from the neoliberal policy agenda in the search for an economic model based on a ‘progressive’ form of extractivism (neoextractivism, as it is referred to—a so-called ‘pink tide’ of regime change—Mexico continued to hoe the neoliberal line of free market capitalism, with a consequent failure to participate in the progress achieved by these ‘progressive’ regimes in terms of poverty reduction. However, in 2018, with the election of AMLO Mexico also seemed to have joined this left-turn in politics and policies. In an analysis of the policies implemented by AMLO over the past three and a half years, the authors address the question as to whether or not this is the case—whether his policies fit into the category of ‘progressive’ (neoextractivism).