asures of the new government was the expropriation of most foreign oil holdings in Mexico, a nationalization which was hailed by most Mexicans as the gaining of true national independence.
After the difficult early years of nationalization, the Mexican national oil company, PEMEX, emerged as one of the most successful and widely respected of Mexican national institutions. By 1970, however, Mexico's oil demand had outstripped domestic supply, and Mexico was forced to export oil. To regain self sufficiency, oil exploration and production was sharply expanded, and Mexico regained oil exporter status in 1974 just as the first Mideast "oil shock" of the 1970s had led to a sharply increased international price for crude oil.
Through the rest of the 1970s, great hopes were invested in the oil sector as a force that would lead Mexico to prosperity. But the expansion and prosperity of PEMEX were accompanied by widespread corruption on a level hitherto unprecedented. In the 1980s, oil prices collapsed at the same time that the preceding corruption was revealed.
Debt and doubt proved to be the chief legacy of the Mexican oil experience of the 1970s and 1980s. This experience is not only an important factor in modern Mexico's political developments, but also holds general lessons about problems facing developing Third World countries.
On June 6, 1981, the Director General of the Mexican national oil company (PEMEX), Diaz Serrano, was dismissed from his position by Mexican President Lopez Portillo.1 The immediate cause of his dismissal was a reduction
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