[A-List] Bolivia: Morales orders government takeover of privatized airline

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	Bolivia's indigenous president Evo Morales ordered the
"intervention" --the placing under the control of a government
administrator-- for 90 days of Lloyd's Aéreo Boliviano, where pilots had
been on strike for more than a week.

	The company had been privatized in 1996 under orders from the
IMF as part of the U.S.-imperialist imposed "Washington consensus." The
measure was part of a plan known as "capitalization" pushed by
then-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, popularly known as "el gringo"
as he grew up in the United States and speaks Spanish with an American
accent. Under this plan 51% of the stock of state companies was given to
private parties, with the rest to two pension funds that supposedly
would pay a US$222/year pension to all Bolivians who were 21 or over at
the time of the "capitalization."

	Morales said that there was evidence of "grave acts of
corruption" and said, "This 90 day intervention seeks to detect who is
responsible for the misadministration of the company." 

	The pilots immediately agreed to return to work under the new
management. Cubana de Aviación and Aerolineas Argentinas will provide
support to the renewal of activities.

	At the center of the scandal is Bolivian capitalist Ernesto
Asbún, who bought a majority stake in the airline in 2003. On Saturday,
at a cocalero union congress, Morales charged that Asbún had failed to
pay the taxes and pension contributions owed by LA. 

	The pilots accuse Asbún and the previous owner of having
decapitalized the company, and say Asbún had been trying to set up
another airline with assets taken from LAB.

	The Confederation of Private Employers denounced the move as a
"bad signal." warned of "subjugation" of the private sector, and
questioned the legality of the decree.

	Morales shot back that if the Confederation was so interested in
having they law followed, they could start by telling businessmen like
Asbún whose companies hadn't paid their taxes to do so.