Lawmaker: don’t let CFE turn off the lights

June 1, 2020

electric meters — If CFE workers show up to turn off electricity, run them off, says deputy.

A Yucatán legislator has called for citizens to chase off workers from the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) if they arrive to turn off customers’ power for nonpayment, urging that they throw rocks at them if necessary.

Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) Deputy Mario Alejandro Cuevas Mena took advantage of his time on the lower house floor to denounce what he called abuses by the CFE with regard to charges for its service.

He called his suggestion a drastic but necessary action in the face of the “lack of sensitivity” on the part of the commission, which has been cutting off customers’ electricity for nonpayment.

Cuevas said that the CFE is cutting off service even as the coronavirus pandemic is in full swing, having escalated drastically nationwide over the last couple of weeks.

He said the commission should take into account the extremely high numbers of people who are unemployed due to the economic effects of the pandemic.

Deputy Cuevas: CFE 'insensitive.' — Deputy Cuevas: CFE ‘insensitive.’

Massive debt forgiveness is not unprecedented at the CFE. In May 2019, the commission cancelled 11 billion pesos (then valued at US $577.6 million) of debt owed by over half a million Tabasco customers who began a civil disobedience campaign more than 20 years earlier.

In Yucatán on Saturday, CFE customers turned off their own electricity to protest what they see as excessive charges by the utility. Some 17 municipalities participated in the hour-long blackout.