[JURIST] Leftist legislators continued demonstrations [AP report] Monday in both houses of the Mexican Congress to protest an energy reform bill sent by Mexican President Felipe Calderon [official websites, in Spanish] to the Mexican Senate [official website] last week. Members of Mexico's Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) [party website, in Spanish] and several smaller parties object to certain provisions of the proposed oil bill, including one that would allow state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos [official website, in Spanish] to work with private companies, a move they say is tantamount to privatization. They reportedly want the Mexican Congress to schedule a national debate on the bill.

The demonstrators in Mexico's lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies [official website, in Spanish], put up barricades around their encampment by the speaker's podium Monday, as their colleagues in the Senate reportedly began a fast. They have refused to retreat from their positions near the House and Senate podiums since protests began last week. AP has more.