On April 29th, many of the groups that were carrying out these denunciations are calling for a big national mobilization against CFE, which will include marches, symbolic occupation of offices and artistic activities.

The Mexican movements will also denounce the policies of criminalization to the protest, which according to them, are being promoted by the Mexican government.
The history of privatization of electric power in Mexico is very similar to the situation in other Latin American countries: after the nationalizing processes which took place in the 60s and 70s, the neoliberal policies of the 90s reverted that tendency and dismantled the systems of state control.

A document launched by one of the main promoters of the protests to be carried out on April 29th states that during the hardest years of neoliberalism the Mexican governments at the moment allowed, through unconstitutional decisions, for private investments in the energy sector. Because of that, now 40% of the sector is privatized.

In addition, the authorization to build hydroelectric dams and wind parks granted to private and foreign companies is “displacing thousands of indigenous and non-indigenous peasant families from their territories”, they state, and there is also the problem of the rise of energy tariffs.

During the last years, several organizations of users of basic services claiming their rights have appeared in different countries of Latin America, due to the indiscriminate rise of tariffs.
In Brazil, for instance, the campaign “The price of energy is a robbery” promoted by the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB in Portuguese) is being carried out to put an end to an obvious situation: the population ends up subsidizing big consumers of energy.

Something similar occurs in Guatemala and Nicaragua, where national consumer´s fronts have strongly mobilized to demand the exit of Spanish company Union FENOSA.