Foreign firms bow to Bolivia energy nationalization

[bemildred]

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, took a key step forward in his bold plan to nationalize the country's gas and oil industries on Sunday after foreign energy companies agreed to operate in the country under state control.

Major energy firms including Petrobras and Repsol YPF ended months of talks with the government with last-minute agreements before a deadline set for midnight Saturday, agreeing to new contracts handing over a larger share of their profits to the Bolivian state.

The deals amounted to a political boost for Morales, the country's first indigenous leader, who has faced criticism for months that the process had been slow-moving and clouded with uncertainty.

"With these new contracts we want to generate more economic resources to solve the economic and social problems of our country. That's our great wish," Morales said during a signing ceremony attended by company executives.

Yahoo

[stepnw1f]

1. Good for Them...

No private company should benifit from a national resource while the people themselves have to pay for it. Natural resources of one nation should be a shared benefit!!!

[Vidar]

2. Viva Morales!

[BrotherBuzz]

3. Dark forces from the United States will just redouble their efforts

Would the United States invade Bolivia? Given the present state of its military, unlikely.

Would the United States try to destabilize Bolivia's economy while training people how to use military force to help Pacific LNG, Shell, British Gas, Total, Repsol steal Bolivian gas for pennies on the dollar? Quite likely.

And would the White House like to use such a coup as a way to send a message to other countries? You bet. President Bush may be clueless on geography, but he is not bad at overthrowing governments and killing people.

Will it be as easy as it was in the old days when the CIA could bribe truckers to paralyze Chile and set the stage for a coup? Nothing is easy in Latin America anymore.

......

Evo Morales, please guard your six. Oh, and Evo, you are welcome at my table any day.

[cliss]

4. Moral of the Story:

Power is a fragile thing indeed. For many decades, the Oil companies have held the reins of power, unquestioned, they ruled with absolute ruthlessness.

Now?

Take a look at Venezuela. Hugo Chavez turned that situation around.

Changing the balance of power is never easy. Each and every one of the countries with petroleum reserves has fought this battle (look at Iraq, don't forget Iran).

The balance of power is slowly unraveling for them, though. The thing that strikes the greatest fear for these companies is to watch the Dominoes fall, one by one.

They know it's only a matter of time.....

[NorthernSpy]

5. Good! Fuck globalism, fuck privatization, and fuck "free" market dogma!

Just as neoconservative foreign policy hasn't brought security, neoliberal economic policies haven't brought prosperity to most people. And they won't, because they can't.

Bolivia is only doing what is necessary for the country's survival. Following the sort of "free market" economic "reforms" demanded by the likes of the IMF and World Bank left most Bolivians worse off than they had been.

Good for Morales! I hope globalists everywhere read this news and promptly drop dead of a fit. That would be the best thing they could ever do for mankind.

[ret5hd]

6. Fuckin' A!