Andrés Manuel López Obrador has moved swiftly to nationalise Mexico’s lithium reserves in a signal that the president intends to continue his leftwing populist agenda despite a failure to extend the state’s reach over the electricity sector.
The new law reflects the Mexican leader’s determination to reassert state control over natural resources but analysts say it will make it harder for the country to benefit from its lithium reserves as demand for the metal soars.
López Obrador had convened congress for a highly unusual Easter Sunday vote on his controversial electricity bill, which the US had criticised for jeopardising billions of dollars of renewable investment and potentially contravening the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.