Weekly Report - 13 March 2008 (ISSN 1741-7422)

The interior minister, Juan Camilo Mouriño, is facing seven counts of corruption. The charges against him have derailed the government's plans to reform the state oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) which has a monopoly over oil exploration and production. On 12 March, after an unnerving silence, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, strongly defended, Mouriño, whom he only appointed to his current job in January. The president's endorsement mobilised the ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) into stepping up its defence of Mouriño.