Mexico Tries to Loosen Country's Monopolies David Agren - USA Today
go to original April 13, 2013

Malverde brand beer, named after the unofficial saint of drug traffickers, Jesus Malverde, has been causing controversy in Mexico. Manager Jesus Briseno shows off a bottle of Malverde brand beer at the Minerva Brewery in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Chris Hawley/USA TODAY)

MEXICO CITY — Jesús Briseño is a Mexican entrepreneur, brewing craft beers like pale ale, stout and a pilsner named for Jesús Malverde, the patron saint of smugglers and drug dealers.

But often it's not Mexico bars that sell his beer but U.S.-based outlets here like Wal-Mart and 7-Eleven.

The reason has to do with Mexico's system of monopolies that are allowed to secure exclusive rights to major industries and products such as telecommunications, broadcasting, cement, even beer. Mexico's two largest brewers use exclusivity contracts to prevent all products but their own from being sold in nearly all of Mexico's bars and restaurants.

Mexico's new president Enrique Peña Nieto says he wants to grow the economy by loosening the hammerlock that big companies have on markets here. But it won't be easy.

Read the rest at USA Today

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!