[Marxism] Fwd: Bolivia’s president hanging from a cliff

[Fred Fuentes <fred.fuentes@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mercosur
Tuesday, 17 May
http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=5658

Bolivia's president hanging from a cliff

A new massive wave of protests demanding the nationalization of
Bolivia's oil and gas industry was launched Monday. Police had to use
tear gas and water-cannons to prevent one group of militants from
storming Congress in the capital La Paz.

Miners blocked several key highways but the most aggressive protests
occurred when thousands marched to the capital from the neighbouring
city of El Alto, which was the epicentre of the civil unrest that
forced the ousting of former elected president Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada in October 2003.

The original demand by main opposition leader Evo Morales pressing for
the promulgation of a bill virtually doubling oil and gas taxes and
royalties, which President Carlos Mesa refuses to support, was soon
overtaken by a clamour for the nationalization of Bolivia's
hydrocarbons sources and oil industry.

Police evacuated congressional offices fearing protesters would force
their way into Murillo Square, seat of Congress and the presidential
palace.

President Mesa has until today Tuesday to formally veto or sign a new
law overhauling the hydrocarbons industry which foreign oil and gas
companies have described as confiscatory.

Last week President Mesa in a national address expressed his
"conceptual" rejection of the bill lawmakers passed May 5 arguing it
would deprive the impoverished Andean nation of badly needed foreign
investment. Even so, he is obliged to submit specific objections in
writing to prevent the bill becoming automatically enacted.

The Bolivian president believes the bill goes too far and the energy
companies warned they will challenge it in international arbitration
courts if contracts are not respected.
But several leftist, Indian and union groups say the bill does not go
far enough and are now demanding outright nationalization.

The scale of Monday's protests surprised even Mr. Morales and members
of the coca-growers union he heads, recurrent instigators of protests
who were unable to control miners' blockading vital highways such as
the one connecting La Paz to the Chilean border and crossing the
cities of Cochabamba and Oruro. Police confirmed that militant miners
also shut down roads linking Potosi to Oruro and Sucre.

Mr. Morales, a hard left Indian leader who narrowly lost the 2002
presidential contest to Mr. Sanchez de Lozada urged President Mesa to
confirm the nationalizing of natural-gas and oil fields with the
government owned oil company, YPFB, taking over assets.

"The president should align himself with the platform of the people
and not continue to defend multinationals", blasted Mr. Morales.

Edgar Patana the leader of the main El Alto labour union warned that
his organization so far has "battled silently" for nationalization of
oil and gas but "the time has come to take them back through
pressure".

Multinationals were attracted to Bolivia following the privatization
of the energy industry in the nineties, among which Spain's
Repsol-YPF, British Petroleum, British Gas, Brazil's state-owned
Petrobras and French giant Total.

Between 1996 and 2002 foreign energy corporations invested over 3,7
billion US dollars in exploration in Bolivia, bringing the country's
proven natural gas reserves to over 52 trillion cubic feet, second
only to Venezuela in Latin America.

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