Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (image: Cierre de Campaña). All Rights Reserved.
It is the stuff of legend in Mexico: In 1938, president Lázaro Cárdenas nationalised US and Anglo-Dutch oil companies and called on Mexicans to “furnish the necessary moral and material support” to pay the debt that newly-created Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) had acquired.
Thousands of Mexicans, inspired but unsure quite how to support the new venture, queued up outside the presidential palace with donations ranging from chickens to jewellery.
