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Citing information provided by the financial intelligence unit of the Mexican Finance Min- istry, the news agency said that several other unnamed individuals were also under suspicion and facing the same charges.
According to Mexican press reports, SPTRM has already named a successor to Romero
Deschamps – Manuel Limon Hernandez, who served as the union’s treasurer until 2018. Limon Hernandez, who has close ties to his newly departed boss, is currently a member of Mex- ico’s federal congress, representing the state of Veracruz as a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
ECUADOR
Ecuador’s president backs away
from plan to lift motor fuel subsidies
Following more than a week of protests, Moreno has negotiated a deal with opposition groups
ECUADOR’S government has cancelled plans to eliminate subsidies for motor fuel prices, fol- lowing protests by opponents of President Lenin Moreno’s economic reform plans.
Moreno had announced the lifting of the subsidies, which have been in place for more than 40 years, on October 2. On that day, he said he had instructed the Hydrocarbons Regula- tion and Oversight Agency (known locally as ARCH) to introduce a new pricing system more in tune with world fuel markets. He argued that the change was necessary, as Ecuador could not afford to keep footing the bill for cheap fuel.
The policy change, which was spelled out in Decree No. 883, drew considerable opposition. Riots and demonstrations soon broke out in Quito and other cities after gasoline and die- sel prices shot upwards, and the government declared a state of emergency on October 3. Nevertheless, protests continued unabated, and members of the cabinet fled the capital for the coastal city of Guayaquil on October 8.
Force majeure
Some of the demonstrations targeted oil
industry infrastructure, including roads and other infrastructure serving the fields that Petroecuador uses to fill the 360,000 barrel per day (bpd) Trans-Ecuadorean Pipeline System, known by its Spanish acronym SOTE.
As a result, the national oil company (NOC) declared force majeure on October 9, saying it was suspending all crude oil trading operations and contractual obligations until the protests died down. On that day, it said it had already lost $12.8mn because of disruptions to production.
These were not the only losses sustained by Petroecuador. On October 10, the NOC said its revenues were down by about $3.4mn per day because the elimination of subsidies had cut so deeply into fuel demand.
Initially, Moreno dismissed the demands
made by the indigenous peoples’ groups lead-
ing the protests for a reinstatement of the fuel subsidies. Eventually, though, the UN and the Catholic Church helped broker talks between
the presidential administration and the oppo- sition. Those negotiations ended with the announcement on October 14 that the two sides
had struck a deal.
Demand for motor fuel has dropped following the lifting of subsidies (Photo: Petroecuador)
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 40 10•October•2019
