The Perks of Power

With César Nava's position at the head of the PAN now safely consolidated, he gets the party president's equivalent of a Super Bowl MVP's trip to Disney Land: a biweekly El Universal column. In his inaugural piece, Nava encourages Mexico to learn from Brazil's energy triumphs:

How was it possible for the Brazilians to make this qualitative and quantitative leap in their oil industry? They limited themselves to adopting other successful experiences from other countries: among other measures, they provided Petrobras with a flexible legal framework that allows shared contracts of association and production with other business; they authorized it to place a part of its social capital on the market, without ceding control of the Brazilian business and its subsidiaries; and they created a corporate governing structure that guarantees transparency and accountability to the society.

Do I suggest that we do the same? Not necessarily. There are formulas that we could adapt to the Mexican model that would be compatible with our constitutional regime, while there are others that possibly wouldn't be. True, we shouldn't blindly apply prescriptions. But maybe would start to gaze southward.

This of course dovetails with Calderón's (and Nava's, for the matter) trip to Brazil, in which the president called for an energy pact and a free trade agreement between the two nations.