Mexico’s imports of U.S. natural gas are surging, kindling fears that the Trump administration could weaponize this trade.
Hundreds of thousands of lost jobs. Mass poverty. Factories, farms and whole industries left idle and suffering.
These are some of the most common worries in Mexico if it faced an all-out trade war with President Trump.
But there is another, lesser-known fear of an economic standoff with the United States: Blackouts, big cities suddenly paralyzed and an irate populace ordered to ration electricity.
One of Mexico’s biggest Achilles’ heels in dealing with the Trump administration is energy — its overwhelming dependence on natural gas from the United States.
“An interruption of the flow of gas to Mexico would be beyond chaotic,” said W. Schreiner Parker, managing director for Latin America at Rystad Energy, an energy intelligence company.
“It’s truly one of the unspoken reasons why Sheinbaum has been so accommodating to Trump,” he added, referring to Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
