Bolivia with Highest Economic Growth in South America in 2017

[Judi Lynn]

La Paz, Dec 28 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia will end this year again as the country with the highest economic growth in South America, President Evo Morales said today during the ceremony to increase the population of river turtles in Trinidad, in the Beni district.

Morales said that the media reports place Bolivia as the country with highest rate in the growth of the Gross Domestic Product in the region.

This way, Bolivia keeps that trend for the fifth time (2009, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017), and fourth in a row, during the period of almost 12 years of the Democratic and Cultural Revolution led by Morales.

In this regard, Morales said that before he took power in 2006, Bolivia was the last country in South America and the second to last in the American continent following Haiti.

He said that the process of change was focused mainly on the nationalization of natural resources and the recovery of strategic companies, as well as industrialization, so that large investments can be made in various districts.

More:
http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=22704&SEO=bolivia-with-highest-economic-growth-in-south-america-in-2017

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Many US Americans who've bothered to watch Latin American affairs may remember the struggle Bolivia had against the elite, wealthy, European-descended fascists of Santa Cruz, and others who comprise the "Half Moon" who hoped to leave Bolivia, stop paying taxes to the government and keep all Bolivia's resources within their area for their own use and profit.

Here's a post with references,from that time:

Separatist, white, Bush-backed elite in Bolivia's oil-rich regions threaten to secede


Edited on Sun Apr-29-07 06:15 PM by StefanX
Separatist white elite in oil and gas regions of Bolivia threatening to secede
http://mondediplo.com/2006/02/08bolivia

Evo Morales and his Movement Towards Socialism still have plenty of opponents in and out of Bolivia: the separatist white elite in the rich oil and gas regions, army factions, multinationals, and the government of the United States.
...
On 18 December {2005?} Morales was elected president in the first round, with 54% of the vote. He is in a difficult situation. The upper classes, determined to hang on to all the privileges they derive from the current system, will give him no respite. Neither will the US, the multinationals or the autonomist, indeed separatist, white elite in the rich oil and gas regions of Santa Cruz and Tarija. If there is a showdown, what will the army do?
...
Last July {2005?}, 500 members of the US Special Forces arrived in {Bolivia's} neighbouring state of Paraguay to train the army “in the struggle against terrorism and drug-trafficking”. Since August, as well as supervising military manoeuvres, the US army has rehabilitated the Mariscal Estigarribia airport in the Gran Chaco region, just 250km from the border with Bolivia. The 3,800m runway is long enough to take heavy transport aircraft, such as the B-52, the C-130 Hercules and the C-5 Galaxy. It is ideally situated as a base for intervention in Bolivia, if the separatist movement in Santa Cruz should decide that the country had become ungovernable.

Elite white Bolivian separatists in oil-rich regions taking up arms and threatening to secede
. . .

The part of Bolivia known as Half Moon, made up mainly of the states of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni and Tarija, is heading for an outbreak of large-scale armed separatist conflict, if demands for greater autonomy for the region are not met by the new Constitution.

"If our demands are not met, we are in a position to rapidly close the access connecting Santa Cruz to the Andes region (where La Paz is located). This would prevent Morales's troops from entering. We realize that if we do this, Morales will have the support of Hugo Chavez to do air strikes. But if he accepts that support, he's going to be helping us instead of hurting us. If Venezuela gets involved, we'll have more support from the international community," the official stated, confirming that his forces are receiving training from Colombia's AUC and arms ordered from Israel. "We're not fools, we need to be ready for anything."
...
The possibility of a confrontation between Half Moon militias and Bolivian troops under Evo Morales could jeopardize the supply of gas to both Brazil and Argentina. The state of Tarija in Bolivia, which is responsible for more than 90% of the natural gas sent to Argentina and Brazil, is part of Half Moon and is said to be territory being claimed by the Camba Nation separatists in case of conflict. Two mega-oilfields (San Alberto and San Antonio) operated by {Brazilian state oil company} Petrobras are located there, producing about 80% of the Bolivian gas consumed by Brazil.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x784770

[Fred Sanders]

1. The old historical white elite are a threat to democracy still in Latin America. And America.

[DBoon]

2. The old plantation aristocracy is the same

no matter if they speak English or Spanish

[Judi Lynn]

3. You've got that right, Fred Sanders. They are all about greed

and getting control of the military to protect themselves from their victims.

Nothing lower.

[GatoGordo]

4. Bolivia is the current bright spot in South America economics

From 1991 to 2012, the country has been expanding at an average growth rate of 2.3 percent, on a quarter over quarter basis, mostly due to a rise in exports of commodities. Natural gas, silver, zinc and soy account for more than 70 percent of total exports.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bolivia contracted 7.80 percent in the second quarter of 2017 over the previous quarter. GDP Growth Rate in Bolivia averaged 1.94 percent from 1991 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 17.60 percent in the first quarter of 2004 and a record low of -15.70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

https://tradingeconomics.com/bolivia/gdp-growth

Fortunately, Morales didn't nationalize everything of value like Maduro in Venezuela. Hopefully, he has learned from Maduro's mistakes.