[Marxism] MESA: REFERENDUM WILL NOT NATIONALIZE GAS

[Fred Fuentes <fuentf01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Apologies in advance if any of the translation is of poor quality.
La lucha continua
Fred

MESA:  REFERENDUM WILL NOT NATIONALIZE GAS
The triumph of YES will not mean the nationalization of gas and
petroleum, the  President told his ally and partner Evo Morales, who in
the last hours in Santa Cruz received another blow after being expelled
with ignominy by the COB for treason.
Econoticiasbolivia.com, July 9, 2004.
The president of Bolivia, Carlos Mesa, reaffirmed today in front of the
industralists of Santa Cruz that he will not nationalize the gas and
petroleum industry, no matter what the result of the July 18
referendum.  "The vision which understands nationalization as
expropriation or as confiscación of the property of the companies does
not go, and those who vote Yes in the referendum knows that we will not
go to nationalization and this is clear and unequivocal.  We will not go
to the nationalization understood like expropriation or confiscation ",
he said when assuring the total respect and continuity of contracts that
the oil transnational companies have, that allows them to have the
control and ownership of all the gas and petroleum of Bolivia.  "If the
people vote Yes we are going to handle with unequivocal clarity from the
following day these ideas, to avoid what will come, that already we know
of, the arbitrary readings, glad and totally hauled of the hairs of
which Yes means nationalization (...)", he said during his intervention
in the annual forum of the Chamber of industry and Commerce of Santa
Cruz.  Although it did not say it specifically, the warning of Mesa,
besides calming the fears of industralists, seemed to be directed to his
main partner and ally, the pariamentary deputy cocalero and head of the
Movement to the Socialism (MAS), Evo Morales, who has repeatedly
indicated that a favorable vote to the three first questions of the
referendum would guaranteed that bolivians would recoup the 54  trillion
cubic feet of gas and more than 480 million barrels of petroleum.
According to Mesa, none of it will happen, since an affirmative answer
to the second question of the referendum will make possible the recovery
of the real ownership of hydrocarbons in 2036, the year in which  the
contracts conclude.  This is the commitment that the President assumed
before the international organisations, the oil transnationals, the US
Spain and Brazilian Embassy, and now ratified before the national
industrialists.  It is not accident, for that reason, that the business
leaders, who had supported to ex- president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada,
overthrown in October by a popular insurrection, endorse the call for
the referendum.  "In October, the people requested a referendum and now
that the government has summoned to consultation, there are radical
sectors that reject that process:  they are sectors that do not act with
rationality ", affirmed Juan Carlos Avila, manager of the Chamber of
Commerce.  The industralists of Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and La Paz
criticized the decision of union leaders and of popular organizations,
such as Alejo veliz and Jamie Solares who announced the boycott to the
referendum. The decision of Mesa of not go for nationalization, made
official already for two months, were diminished, nevertheless, by the
leader coca grower, who in the last hours was expelled from Central
Bolivian Obrera (COB) for having betrayed the union movement, to having
sabotaged strikes and mobilizations, being the main supporter of the
neoliberal government and for endorsing the referendum.  According to
Morales, and the peasant leaders and coca growers who follow him, the
different interpretation that they have with Mesa on the questions of
the referendum would be settled by the national Congress, dominated in
its two thirds by the neoliberal parties that governed with Sanchez de
Lozada.  But, the real possibility that the position of Morales will be
accepted by the Parliament are almost nil, since he has lost all his
bench of senators, which have been accused of being bribed to allow the
approval of a law that gives immunity to the North American troops who
operate in Bolivia.  In minority in the Parliament and repudiated by the
social and labor sectors, it will be hard for Morales to organize
mobilizations to pressure, after the referendum, to at least   modify
the oil contracts.  "Evo is committing suicide (...) His ambition to get
to be President at all costs is beating him", said one of the most
important leaders of the COB, the organization who again instructed to
boycott the consultation, in spite of the militarization of the rural
area and the highways of the Plateau.
In La Paz, the Federation of Farmers Tupac Katari summoned an extended
meeting on Friday to organize the boycott.  The executive secretary of
the sector, Rufo Calle, indicated that the farmers of La Paz reject the
five questions of the referendum for not  reflecting the popular demand,
that is the nationalization of hydrocarbons.
The leadership of Movimiento Sin Tierra (MST) announced, on the other
hand, the accomplishment of national extended meeting of the sector in
the population of Ayo Ayo to consolidate the boycott to the referendum.
The leader Pinto Gabriel informed that the extended meeting will occur
next week, just days prior to the national consultation, in spite of the
militarization that exists in the highway La Paz Oruro.  In as much, the
peasant leaders and coca growers loyal to Morales, like several CODs
(regional Workers Unions) of Tarija, Chuquisaca and Federations and
Confederations of workers related to the MAS continue summoning their
bases to assist the referendum and vote YES in the three first questions
and NO in the two last ones, in the belief that of this will be
supporting  the nationalization of gas and petroleum.




_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism