US to pay for new wind power plants in Mexico, country's president says

Mexico’s president said Wednesday that he expects the U.S. government or U.S. banks to provide interest-free loans to build four wind-power farms in the narrow waist of southern Mexico, an area known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he expects U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to travel to the area next month to launch the projects.

López Obrador also fueled speculation that U.S. automaker Tesla will build a plant in Mexico, saying that he had been told that Elon Musk’s company was considering an industrial park about 2 miles from the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) near Mexico City.

Mexican presidential spokesman Jesus Ramirez said that this plant would serve as an export hub for the company.

The wind farms on the isthmus are part of López Obrador’s plans to build a total of 10 industrial parks along a renovated rail corridor linking the Pacific and Gulf coasts, as part of an effort to create jobs in the poorer, less-developed south of Mexico.