Evo Morales strikes a blow against the evil imperialist Ame... Spaniards? Brazilans?

[kleph]

Making good on his main campaign pledge, Bolivia's President Evo Morales ordered troops to occupy the country's oil and natural gas fields on Monday and issued a decree giving the government majority control over the energy industry.

"The pillaging of our resources by transnational companies is over," Morales said in a speech at the San Alberto gas field in southern Bolivia. "From this day forward, all hydrocarbons in the country are nationalized."

Morales, a leftist who was elected in December, ordered troops to 56 locations around the country, officials said, including to the city of Santa Cruz where much of the industry is based. He issued a decree that stopped short of expropriation but ordered foreign companies to renegotiate their operating contracts with the state within six months or leave the country.

The decree raised taxes and royalties on the largest gas fields to 82 percent from 50 percent. And it gave the government final say in decisions over production, transportation, commercialization and exports of oil and natural gas.

...

Spain's Repsol YPF, the most exposed of the Western oil majors to Bolivia, opened down 3 percent, while BG Group, which has large reserves in Bolivia, also opened lower before recovering. Analysts said they expected Brazil's Petrobras, the other major foreign oil interest in the country to open weaker.

The market reaction on Tuesday was muted, because Bolivia accounts for only a small portion of the affected oil firms' asset bases and because, expecting such a move, investors had already discounted the value of Bolivian barrels.

The exact details of how nationalisation will work in practice is unclear. It appears that foreign oil firms will be relegated to simply operating the fields, with all oil and gas production going to the state energy company.

Investors are concerned that the arrangements will leave operations in the country economically unviable.

"These conditions make gas operations practically impossible in Bolivia," Petrobras President Jose Sergio Gabrielli told Brazil's Globo Television Network.

Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/3833479.html)
Reuters (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-05-02T113902Z_01_L02321727_RTRUKOC_0_UK-ENERGY-BOLIVIA-OILMAJORS.xml)
BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4964300.stm)

[beowulf437]

I heard about this the other day. Brazil is the largest customer for Bolivian natural gas and they are making noises about having to find new supplies or alternatives to make up for the additional costs. I also heard that Morales has mentioned a plan to build a pipeline across Chile and up the Pacific coast to Baja to sell gas to Mexico and the US. The problem is such a pipeline would be enormously expensive and therefore difficult to finance.

edit:splellink

[kleph]

and impossible to do. bolivia threw out one president already for trying that plan. peru is about to start exporting natural gas from the very rich camisea fields and they had a plan with bolivia to also pipe bolivian gas out but evo deep sixed it with his protests last year.

oh, and this type of action against two of bolivia's closest business partners (plus pretty much destroying the alliance of andean nations last month)pretty much ensures they are going to get left out of the huge regional pipeline being worked on now.

the only people they know they can sell to are the venezuelans but there are two problems venezuela is the only country in south america with more natural gas than bolivia and there aint no piplelines running north.

basically, evo has shit in his mess kit and now he is going to have to eat it. things are going to get really really bad in bolivia over the next few years and a lot of innocent people this guy purports to represent are going to suffer and die.

[Scumbag]

Interesting, but why is this in the war forum ?

[kleph]

i am waiting for the trolls to come out of the woodwork.

[Directed]

I love how countries in Latin America can't let businesses just do business. The more they interfere, the more they screw things up. I believe the problem is they expect too much of foreign countries and companies in particular. You need to develop your own economy, foreign countries and companies will help you to the extent that they profit from it. When you mess with them profiting from helping you, they stop. SHOCK HORROR!!!!!

[Scumbag]

I beleive primary resources such as oil, gas, minerals etc should be nationalized in most nations who can afford to explore, setup and operate mining industries, or at the least have legislation passed to ensure that profits dont escape into overseas coffers from the relevant industry groups. If youre after some examples to explain why, the rapid privatization of resources in Russia & other ex-soviet states during the fall of communism has been one of the largest failures of World Bank / IMF policies of the 20th century. Refer to a book called Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz (2001 Nobel Prize in Economics) for a detailed analysis.

[kleph]

but nationalized industries, particularly in south america, have a track record of being as corrupt as any private country with the added bonus of being completly inefficent. unlike private companies, they can completely ignore the market and, very often, they do. the result is not difficult to figure out.

add to that, in bolivia's case, an 85 percent tax on any gas going out of the country and who can afford to buy the stuff? bolivia desperately needs private industries to invest into their oil and gas sector because the bottom line is they simply do not have the money to do so themselves. now the only thing they can hope is that chavez is keen on making them venezuala south and undwrites their entire economy.

[Spades]

nationalise everything - fuck all capitalists - wots wrong woth the soviet model - wheres Lenin when u need him

[kleph]

dead

[berserk]

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that Brazil respected Bolivia's right to nationalize its natural gas industry but that Rio would defend the contracts it has signed giving it rights to Bolivian gas.

"Bolivia's nationalization of its gas reserves was a necessary adjustment for a suffering people seeking a greater measure of control over their own resources," da Silva said. "However, the fact that Bolivia has rights does not deny the fact that Brazil has rights in the matter as well."

Da Silva also said that "there is no crisis and there will not be a crisis," adding, "I'm sure that we will come to an agreement."
IHT (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/03/news/bolivia.php)

[kleph]

its worth noting that lula was elected on a socialist platform but has become one of the leading free trade advocate in south america.

it's interesting to watch how they handle this incident because it is the first time they might come into direct clash with venezuela. it has been easy for chavez to demonize the u.s. because they are arms length. tougher to do that with their real principal rival, brazil.

lula and kirchner are headed to a summit with bolivia and chavez just left the country. it's not hard to connect the dots.

[berserk]

Some background (apparently) to Bolivia oil & gas nationalisation
Two factors compelled Morales to seize Bolivia's national resources and to realign the country internationally: the militancy of the country's peasant, worker and indigenous movements, and the decision of the US to foist free-trade agreements on Colombia and Peru that severely damaged Bolivian exports to other Andean nations.

Until May 1, some of the country's popular movements felt that Morales had reneged on his campaign promises as he did little more than state that Bolivia already "owned its resources". His approval ratings dropped from 80% to 68%. But as one observer in La Paz notes, "Evo is a masterful politician". Morales chose this moment to act because of the elections for the constituent assembly, scheduled for July. The assembly will have the power to redraft the country's constitution and reshape its political institutions.



Seizing control of these enterprises goes to hand in hand with Bolivia's audacious steps in the trade arena. MAS and Morales view neoliberalism, US trade agreements and corporate-driven globalisation as major obstacles to the country's development.

This year, Colombia signed a so-called "free-trade agreement" with the US that is particularly harmful to Bolivia. Sixty per cent of Bolivia's major agricultural export, soya beans, currently goes to Colombia. The US-Colombian accord means that cheap, subsidised US grains will flood Colombia, driving out Bolivian soya.

Lima has also just signed a trade agreement with Washington that will have an adverse impact on Bolivian exports to Peru. These accords have ruptured the 37-year-old Andean Community of Nations, a trade pact that included Venezuela and Ecuador as well as Bolivia.

The discontent with the Andean community led to the signing of the people's trade agreement between Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia on April 29. The accord is particularly favourable to Bolivia, as Cuba and Venezuela have agreed to take all of Bolivia's soya production as well as other agricultural commodities at market prices or better. Venezuela will also ship oil to Bolivia to meet domestic shortfalls in production, while Cuba will send doctors.
In full here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1769857,00.html)

[kleph]

if you really believe bolvia's decision to nationalize its oil and gas is striking a blow against the u.s. you have no idea what is actually going on here.

[berserk]

I don't know what to believe. How about you give some counter arguments.

[kleph]

how about you do your own homework?

[IamSpartacus]

if you really believe bolvia's decision to nationalize its oil and gas is striking a blow against the u.s. you have no idea what is actually going on here.

Phil Flynn, Chicago based analyst .... "Ten years ago Bolivia wouldn't have created a ripple beceause there was enough world (oil) supply ... But now we're in a seller's market. What we're seeing now is any nation with any supply trying to cash in."

UK broadsheet The Sunday Times 2006-05-07 ... discusses efforts by US Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice to prevent political shocks that might increase American petrol prices. "...The stage has been set for a protracted stand-off between western consumers worried about prices and South American oil producers whose newfound enthusiasm for bashinhg foreign companies may spread to Africa, Asia and elsewhere..."


Alright Kelph not yet a 'blow against the US', but you need a spark and a wind to start a bushfire.


Now, further to Beserk's offerings, are you pro- or anti-Morales ?. Ditto for the most splendid Chavez led Axis of Good.

[kleph]

jesus, do a modicum of research beyond the google search and a quick stop a wikipedia. bolivia has natural gas not oil, you dumb fuck.

[darns]

if you really believe bolvia's decision to nationalize its oil and gas is striking a blow against the u.s. you have no idea what is actually going on here.

Sincerely, I have no idea of what is actually going on in Latin america. Are you able to give a short brief from your perspective?

[IamSpartacus]

Klutz try not to be so arrogantly self-confident in future, it's most sad.

The 'oil' quote above was from the same newspaper article. I didn't go anywhere near a fucking search engine or wikipedia. Are these the only sources for your information ? get a life twat, and don't be so presumptuous about others.

You recently seem to have two prime methods of posting ...
1 - cut & paste from the 'net
2 - telling everyone else you're a fucking star and they are lesser.

Come on smart arse Klutz, three people have now posted asking for your opinons/briefs on these Latin American events. What, are you afraid of the death squads ? ... or are you evolving into a Nodbugger ?.

[IamSpartacus]

Kelph, you may find it hard to believe, but South American events feature almost daily in our broadsheet UK newspapers and over the last year more regularly on the BBC (televised) news services. Some of us do give a fuck about events in South America.

I read ...

- daily The Independant which is most balanced and does address many world wide humanitarian issues, disasters and elcological problems.

- The Times two or three copies in weekdays, plus the Sunday Times. This broadsheet is part of Murdoch-vision and does lean to the right.

- tabloid The News of the World on Sundays as it's good to get a load of tits and bits and trivia.

- Weekly magazine New Scientist as a subscriber.

- Fortnightly satirical political magazine Private Eye

- Monthly journal Nature as a subscriber.

- scan through Newsweek at the newsstand if I have some time to kill. Not worth buying though.

plus lots of irregular periodicals.


Whenever I visit the 'states I always read USAtoday as it's so funny and the cities' most relevant broadsheet.


And amazingly, these readings, television & news and conversations with people lead me to undertake further research etc on the 'net and through books.


So all of the bullshit postings (above) aside, I would like to e-chat about happenings in South America.

[kleph]

and, i bet, you took a class on it in college.

i notice one interesting trait about all those periodicals. let me see if you can identify it after taking a quick look at the three papers i start with reading every day: here (http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/), here (http://www.larepublica.com.pe/) and here (http://www.gestion.com.pe/).

also, as a member of the foreign press association i can tell you that you are getting all your news from peru from exactly three individuals. three. rick vecchio, sharon stephenson and lucien chauvin. every so often you are getting something from tyler bridges as well. everything else is opinion pieces from folks elsewhere.

broad spectrum of information there, isn't it?

and i would love nothing better than to have a discourse on latin american issues here in one of the forums but i don't really believe it is possible anymore. any discussion on the topic, for australians, immediately comes down to "George Bush is bad," "The US is bad" and "Everything is about oil."

(which is why this thread was started in the war forum. i figured why wait until the inevitable happened and be forced to move it?)

threads started typically feature a hugo chavez bolivation as a launching pad for the usual boilerplate as well described in directed's thread The rules of political discourse at ZGeek (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33773).

[IamSpartacus]

Nah, I'm a forensic paleontologist by trade. Can't read the lingo in your three quoted papers, but www.worldpress.org reckons...

El Comercio (Centrist, largest circulation), Lima www.elcomercioperu.com.pe
La República (center-left), Lima www.larepublica.com.pe
Gestión (Business-oriented), www.gestion.com.pe


I don't have any local newspaper Peruvian articles to hand, but main Sunday Times correspondent Tony Allen-Mills is based in Caracus. I'm unaware how much he travels within South America but he does digest & regurigitate AP stories too. His article today is doom-mongering about Chavez, but focusses on his family history and policies.

With this week's EU-Latin America summit we have had The Independant's Viennese correspondent Stephen Castle overviewing Morales and his policy impacts on relationships with Brazil. Editorial coverage of the summit remains neutral whilst describing Chavez as a 'colourful character'.

Same issue article by foreign correspondent Robert Fisk based in Brazil but was reporting from Sao Paulo was concentrating on Varig issues and overviewing local paper's coverage ... and hitting on Brazilian military history and Oz's John Howard.

Same issue Daniel Howden focussed upon predictions of Chavez & the US administration's banter.

Most have been half to one page spreads. We did have a two page spread last Thursday in The Independant by Andrew Buncomber in Palo Ralo about human rights, ecological issues and corruption etc in the Honduran gold rush region.


So Kleph as you stated I have no idea who these reporters/correspondents are or where their allegiances lie; this is just a crude sample of the Latin American coverage that we get here in the UK. I do find it interesting reading ... also as I never really know where in the world I'll be for next dig it's good to have an awareness of social, economic and political issues in even the most remote of lands.

[Looney_Tunes67]

jesus, do a modicum of research beyond the google search and a quick stop a wikipedia. bolivia has natural gas not oil, you dumb fuck.

Just a quick correction there Kleph. Bolivia actually does have oil. The initial drilling found large deposits of almost pure CH4 with a bit of propane and butane thrown in. They also found a smaller deposit of oil in just under 80% of all wellheads capped......

Either way, there main potential export is Natural Gas.