The Mexican oil industry, long a state monopoly, appears to be on the verge of opening itself to outsiders. In August, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto presented a proposal to allow national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, to enter into joint ventures, and for private oil companies to operate their own projects in profit-sharing agreements with the government. Mexico's opposition parties have their own proposals.

Vice President Biden is heading to Mexico later Thursday to kick off the first-ever high level economic dialogue between the two nations. On his third trip to Mexico, Biden will sit down with President Enrique Peña Nieto as part of the launch of the U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue in Mexico City to improve the economic relationship between the two neighbors.

Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto delivered the first Primer Informe, or first report, of his term on Monday. The speech, equivalent to the U.S. "State of the Union" address, was given under the backdrop of protests that saw some violence this weekend. The hashtags #1SMx ("1SeptMx"), #1erInformedeGobierno ("Government's1stReport") and #CNTE (referring to Mexico's teachers union) are trending in the county.

Six years of unremitting headlines on extreme violence and rampant crime has sullied Mexico’s reputation abroad. Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and his confrontational “War on Drugs” grew increasingly unpopular over the years, resulting in the 2012 election of opposition party candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, who espoused a new security strategy and vision for Mexico.

Pena Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, want to let foreign companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Repsol SA sign production-sharing contracts for oil exploration and output. (The companies would still be prohibited from operating their own fields.) Thus would Mexico return to the situation that prevailed from 1938, when the country expropriated oilfields from U.S.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has presided over an incredible year so far in Mexico, pushing through reforms of the telecom and educational sector. But this week, just days after Pena Nieto’s successful thyroid surgery, the president and his PRI party are set to introduce their biggest proposal yet — proposing sweeping changes to the nation’s oil laws that have for decades protected the bloated state oil monopoly Pemex and prevented foreign investment.