Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s popular and vocal energy minister, submitted his resignation Monday following a political rally in which some of his supporters urged him to run for president in 2006. President Vicente Fox, who had appointed Calderon in September 2003, said the rally was “both out of place and the wrong time.”

The Energy Ministry, which oversees Mexico’s state-owned oil and natural gas monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), released a copy of Calderon’s resignation letter, in which he described Fox’s reaction to the Saturday rally in the Mexican state of Jalisco as “unfair and out of proportion.”

In the letter, Calderon wrote, “I also regret that your opinion stops me from continuing in a position that requires support, authority and capacity for dialogue. Therefore, I am resigning from the position of Energy Minister that you conferred on me.”

Fox shook up his cabinet last year in an effort to move along some of his stalled political reforms, and he appointed Calderon to encourage backing for his sweeping energy reform proposals (see Daily GPI, Sept. 9, 2003). Calderon is the former president of Mexico’s ruling National Action Party, or PAN, and a former PAN congressional leader.

Last month, Calderon announced that Pemex would cut up to 5,000 jobs in a restructuring effort (see Daily GPI, May 17). He said then that Pemex needed to “significantly improve the way it operates; it needs to save a large part of its costs.”

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