Frontera NorteSur March 2002

Quoted in the January 30, 2002, Reynosa newspaper El Mañana, the Superintendent of the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Rafael Velázquez Casillas, stated that a payment extension to the city of Reynosa for unpaid electricity was not met on January 23. So, six days later, on January 29, the CFE turned off the power to the Reynosa city hall.

While city hall's unpaid bill was just 23,000 pesos (approximately US$2,500), and has been taken care of since January 30, the city still owes the CFE nearly six million pesos (approximately US$650,000) for power supplied to other parts of the city.

The largest debt according to the CFE, is for city lighting, five million pesos. The police station owes 35,000 pesos and traffic lights have consumed 106,000 pesos of electricity.

While on January 29 the CFE had mentioned the possibility of turning off power to street lights and city plazas as a way of getting the city to pay, Reynosa and the CFE now appear to be negotiating and end to the problem.

Reynosa Mayor Serapio Cantú Barragan has said that he is looking into possible bank financing as a way to pay up the city's past due accounts. Cantú has also told El Mañana that he is the victim of political game playing since he is a member of the PRI and the CFE is controlled by the PAN which runs the federal government.

Currently still in dispute is whether or not the city must pay interest on its past due amounts, according to the CFE's Velázquez. Velázquez believes that Reynosa should pay between 8% and 12% interest per month on what it owes. Cantú states that the city should not be charged interest on the past due amount.

Source: El Mañana (Reynosa), January 30 and February 4, 2002.

Electricity Subsidy Planned for Baja California Summer

Two hundred million pesos (approximately US$21,000,000) will be destined for Baja California electricity users this summer. Such summer-time programs are common along the hot US-Mexico border because they make the use of cooling systems more affordable to families.

The 200 million pesos are coming from more efficient management of state resources and from new agreements with the federal government, said Fernando Castro Trenti, the president of the state congress.

Castro also told the Méxicali newspaper, La Crónica, that the electricity subsidy will not affect funds previously destined to public security and social development.

According to Castro, the state governor is behind the program as well as the two major political parties in the state, the PRI and the PAN, and the Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano (Mexican Green Ecological Party, PVEM).

Source: La Crónica (Méxicali), February 12, 2002. Article by Eneida Sánchez Zambrano.