Mexico: race against time

Time and oil are in short supply in Mexico.

Mexico's ruling conservatives have just under three weeks to convince opposition lawmakers to agree on an energy reform proposal aimed at breathing life into the country's flagging oil industry. Both chambers of Mexico's parliament need to approve President Felipe Calderon's proposed sweeping modernisation of the state-owned oil monopoly Pemex, but Congress winds up on April 30, re-opening on September 1.

On April 8, Calderon sent an ambitious oil reform to the Senate, allowing private firms -- both domestic and foreign -- to assume a greater role in the petroleum industry. Reform proposals are far from revolutionary, but politically feasible in a sector that is a nationalist minefield. A divided opposition should help the government, but Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, leader of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), has staked his credibility on derailing reform at any cost, and has militant supporters. Violent clashes are likely.