Answer to How Question follows- Mexican Spanish is the official, legal language in Mexico. There are historical
and other reasons for that. The invading Spaniards in the 1500s took alot of the Aztec silver to Madrid. That
is well documented history. But the Aztec indian language did NOT become the official language in the Valle of Mexico
( Mexico City). Spanish did. So all of the SENER - CNH bidding documents are in Mexican Spanish ( which
differs significantly from Spanish in other countries in Central and South America ). Basically, what that means is
that there is no use for you to beat your head against a palm tree down here, trying to convince any official to do anything
for you, IN ENGLISH.
My favorite linguistic example is the following: So a Brit is slurping a cool Tecate,
and thinking he is smart when he spills his drink on the fem next to him, says: "I am embarassed for spilling my drink
on your bikini." And he tries to translate that into his best Spanish, to impress the sweet thing, and blurts out,
"Estoy embarasado por echarte mi Tecate." To his surprise, she gets up quickly, and runs away. Why?
Because a male does NOT say he is "pregnant" to the sweet thing, and think she will have the patience to deal
with his incorrect translation! hahaha. He should have said, "Me da verguenza . . . ."
So
the SENER / CNH people do not have time to deal with such linguistic translation / interpretation errors when it comes to
big numbers, and THAT IS THE BIGGEST REASON THAT ALL THE LEGAL DOCUMENTS ARE IN MEXICAN SPANISH. QED.
Next Question = "How much to get my foot in the door?" Answer = that varies according to your Mexican
agent, or your Mexican JV partner. Me, I would ask you to deposit ONLY $25K USD to my Mexican favorite bank account;
and then I will hand-carry you through the licitation process. You have options: bidding offshore in shallow water,
bidding onshore, bidding offshore in deepwater ( later ). I will present all of those options to your Mexican Investment
Committee. You / we have to go through a "due diligence" procedure required by SENER / CNH. Same for
almost every bidding company. You / we have to post a heavy.duty bond ( which is refundable after the end of the 5 yr
or 10yr project). We have to show technical competency ( lots of CVs and supporting historical docs ). You / we
have to choose a reputable CPA and setup books. There are alot of business managament details that have to be done,
in order to become a "qualified bidder in Mexico". I will help you do this with one, or more, of my technical
experts and expert companies. All in Mexican Spanish. You and I will negotiate in English, but our work product
HAS to be turned in to SENER / CNH in Spanish. Including the project work plan. We can do it together.
Time is of the essence. The timetable setup several years ago, can NOT be amended, because it has been approved
by the Mexican Federal Congress. That means that IF you do not jump on the bandwagon soonest, your chances of
getting into the parade are about as good as those of a "snowball in hell", haha. (Note the cowboy humor thread
in all of this.)