We’ve got the power - NOT

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Two days after a freak windstorm snapped power lines and plunged much of Mexico City into darkness, thousands of homes in the capital are still without electricity.

Sparks are flying over who is to blame for the massive outage. But forget Mother Nature. At the center of the debate is the state-owned power company Luz y Fuerza del Centro.

Critics of the government monopoly -- and there are plenty of them -- say the company is an inefficient, corrupt dinosaur that exists mainly to provide high-paying jobs to the powerful electricians union, as well as votes for the politicians who support them.

Capital dwellers pay some of the highest electricity rates in Latin America while enduring lousy service. Power outages are frequent here and getting worse thanks to a housing boom that has stretched the grid to the limit.

Defenders say Luz y Fuerza and its state-owned counterpart, Comision Federal de Electricidad, which provides service in the rest of the country, are doing the best they can with aging equipment and limited resources. The companies have called repeatedly for more funding to build new power plants and transmission lines.

Some here believe that the firms are being deliberately starved of resources by pro-business legislators who want to see the industry privatized.

E-mails to Mexico’s national daily Reforma reflected both views, though sentiment was running strongly against Luz y Fuerza. Some examples:

Luz y Fuerza ‘is a repugnant business dominated by a retrograde, troglodyte ... union.’

‘State-owned companies don’t have to compete. They don’t know the word ‘efficiency.’ ‘

‘We’re paying first-world prices for obsolete service.’

‘Privatize it already!’

‘The assumption that a privatized business functions better is completely false.’

‘Luz y Fuerza is another classic example of the federal government neglecting our patrimony ... to justify its privatization.’

‘No to privatization! Yes, to massive blackouts!’

-- Marla Dickerson in Mexico City