The Petróleos Mexicanos company is today one of the largest companies in the world, being worth around 400 billion dollars.
The Mexican government under President Lázar Cárdenas nationalized the country’s entire oil industry on this day in 1938. Until then the industry had been in the hands of foreign private companies, so this was considered a sort of attack on foreigners. Many countries reacted by boycotting Mexican goods.
The new company was called Petromex (Petróleos Mexicanos), and was owned entirely by the state. Today the company is known as Pemex and possesses a monopoly over oil exploitation in Mexico. The company is one of the largest in the world and is estimated to be worth around 400 billion dollars. There is some controversy regarding this since all its shares aren’t listed on the stock exchange (similarly to Saudi Aramco, the largest such company in the world).
