MEXICO CITY, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Mexico's government will address future energy disputes with foreign companies on a "case by case" basis, its president said on Friday, a day after meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden's top energy official.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Thursday amid claims of unfair treatment from some U.S.-based energy companies with investments in the Latin American country's power sector, particularly renewable energy firms.
The government last year launched a constitutional reform https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-president-says-electricity-reform-has-been-sent-congress-2021-10-01 to boost state control of the electricity market, which Lopez Obrador said was a matter of national security https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexican-power-bill-us-sights-top-energy-official-meets-lopez-obrador-2022-01-20, arguing past governments had skewed the market in favor of private capital.
The president, a leftist resource nationalist, has often couched his opposition to foreign and private participation in the energy sector as part of his drive to eradicate corruption.
"We were talking about all this, and she understands that our mission is to banish corruption from our country as well as showing our openness to dialogue, and to go case by case," said Lopez Obrador at his regular morning news conference, referring to potential disputes with U.S. energy companies.
While he acknowledged that "a small number" of both U.S. and Canadian companies have complained, he did not name any of them or otherwise go into detail. (Reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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