At the roots of the dogmas that manipulate the president of Mexico there is a confusion between companies and countries.
The phenomenon emerged in the last century when, for example, Coca Cola was converted by communists into an embassy of the United States; Fidel Castro was surprised that Mexican minors easily recognized Disney characters and not so much the heroes of the country.
One was also surprised that, for Fidel, the absence of freedoms on the island was less important than the decisions made by Washington. Mysteries exist in the absence of reasoning.
In Tokyo, children believe that Disney characters have Japanese nationality. No problem. Disney shareholders don’t care about that perception.
It is uncertain whether the nationality of businessman Carlos Slim adds value to his business in Latin America, and vice versa.
It is likely that for President López Obrador there are no differences between Luis Enrique, coach of the red team at the Qatar World Cup, and the CEO of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán. Both are Spanish. What is certain is that AMLO underestimates the relationship with Spain due to its bad relationship with the electricity company Iberdrola. Spain is not Iberdrola. Is much more.
Iberdrola is a multinational company whose mission transcends Spain, and its shareholders seek to maximize profit beyond the geography of the business.
The president of Mexico has wasted several years in injuring the relationship with Spain. He says that he keeps it on “pause” for various reasons: what if the letter to King Felipe VI, what if Felipe Calderón, what if El País, what if Iberdrola.
AMLO decided to place obstacles to Iberdrola until the company got tired, stopped investing in Mexico and sold part of its business. In its 2023-2025 investment plan, Mexico was practically left out. Of the 47,000 million euros to be invested, the United States will take 50 percent.
AMLO’s dogma translates the agreement with Iberdrola into a “nationalization”, a concept that takes us to the last century where the Mexican State put popcorn in the oven to sell it in its COTSA cinemas.
“We got rid of the regulatory problems in Mexico,” José Sainz, Iberdrola’s chief financial officer, told a group of analysts last week.
“Most of the regulatory problems were in the transferred assets. The problems go away with the assets, so we are now almost free of the problems with the Mexican government”.
Blessed rationality for those who bought the Eiffel Tower.
Mr. Manuel Bartlett will be in charge of the plants sold by Iberdrola. He will need more than luck to prevent the efficiency of the plants from falling. Let’s hope that the second time the system doesn’t crash.
@faustopretelin
