Morales to nationalize Bolivia oil, gas

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 · Last updated 11:53 a.m. PT

Morales to nationalize Bolivia oil, gas

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The winner of Bolivia's presidential elections has repeated his vow to nationalize oil and gas and said he will void at least some contracts held by foreign companies "looting" the poor Andean nation's natural resources.

Indian coca farmer Evo Morales said he will not confiscate refineries or infrastructure owned by multinational corporations. Instead, his government would renegotiate contracts so that the companies are partners, but not owners, in developing Bolivia's resources, he said.

"We will nationalize (Bolivia's) natural resources," Morales said at a news conference Tuesday in La Paz.

"Many of these contracts signed by various governments are illegal and unconstitutional. It is not possible that our natural resources continue to be looted, exploited illegally, and as the lawyers say, these contracts are legally void and must be adjusted," Morales said.
(snip/...)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310AP_Bolivia_Oil_Companies.html

[NoAmericanTaliban]

1. Guess he wouldn't be getting an X-Mass card from Exxon

Morales needs to be careful - otherwise he'll end up being couped or assassinated like what happened in Iran - when the CIA put the Shah in charge. That worked out really well. :sarcasm:

[aquart]

2. As we should.

Clearly, the behavior of our oil companies is not in the best interests of the American people.

[deutsey]

3. Sniff, sniff...

Is that a coup I smell a-brewing?

:evilfrown:

[MisterP]

11. do we have any 3rds-in-command at Bergen-Belsen we can call

and direct another coup--like Barbie!

[indepat]

4. That damned leftest trying to mess with the multinationals' lucrative

contracts might just have to be taught a lesson or two. ;)

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Rummy may have a plan to protect his buddies interests there

Would the United States try to destabilize Bolivia's economy while training people how to use military force to insure Enron, Shell, British Gas, Total, Repsol, and the United States continues to get Bolivian gas for pennies on the dollar? You bet your sweet bippy they will.



Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy



by Conn Hallinan


November 24, 2005

Foreign Policy In Focus - 2005-11-21



It would be easy to make fun of President Bush's recent fiasco at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Artic Circle to Tierra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neoliberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists asked him rude questions about Karl Rove. And the President ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: “Wow! Brazil is big!”


But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.


U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .


Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.

<snip>

The base is crawling with U.S. civilians—many of them retired military—working for Military Professional Resources Inc., Virginia Electronics, DynCorp, Lockheed Martin (the world's largest arms maker), Northrop Grumman, TRW, and dozens of others.


It was U.S. intelligence agents working out of Manta who fingered Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia leader Ricardo Palmera last year, and several leaders of the U.S.-supported coup against Haitian President Bertram Aristide spent several months there before launching the 2004 coup that exiled Aristide to South Africa.


“Privatizing” war is not only the logical extension of the Bush administration's mania for contracting everything out to the private sector; it also shields the White House's activities from the U.S. Congress. “My complaint about the use of private contractors,” says U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsy (D-IL), “is their ability to fly under the radar to avoid accountability.”

<More>

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=HAL20051124&articleId=1322

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. Kick. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

24. Some serious swindling went on between American countries and Bolivia

It was a shock reading in your great article the following:

A major focus of the unrest in Bolivia is who controls its vast natural gas deposits, the second largest in the Western Hemisphere. Under pressure from the United States and the IMF, Bolivia sold off its oil and gas to Enron and Shell in 1995 for $263.5 million, less than 1% of what the deposits are worth.(snip)

This is GROTESQUE. Doesn't it remind one of paying Manhattan with some beads? You'd think they'd be decent enough to have offered an honorable price. They were undoubtedly able to get around that lapse in decency by bribing a few well-placed European-descended Bolivian officials.

Also, concerning the military/mercenary build-up in the area, from the same article:

Paraguayan denials that Mariscal Estigarribia is now a U.S. base have met with considerable skepticism by Brazil and Argentina . There is a disturbing resemblance between U.S. denials about Mariscal Estigarribia, and similar disclaimers made by the Pentagon about Eloy Alfaro airbase in Manta , Ecuador . The United States claimed the Manta base was a “dirt strip” used for weather surveillance. When local journalists revealed its size, however, the United States admitted the base harbored thousands of mercenaries and hundreds of U.S. troops, and Washington had signed a 10-year basing agreement with Ecuador .

The Eloy Alfaro base is used to rotate U.S. troops in and out of Columbia, and to house an immense network of private corporations who do most of the military's dirty work in Columbia. According to the Miami Herald , U.S. mercenaries armed with M-16s have gotten into fire fights with guerrillas in southern Columbia, and American civilians working for Air Scan International of Florida called in air strikes that killed 19 civilians and wounded 25 others in the town of Santo Domingo.
(snip/...)

Sure hope Latin American is developing the power it will need to get its honor and freedom back from the bullies in Republican administrations who stole everything, and killed so many, many people to do it.

History should be corrected in THIS replay, by God. Instead of getting a SuperNixon in the White House, we need to see the scum defeated every way possible, leaving not even the chance for a discreet early retirement.

[oneighty]

7. Wow! Kinda like Alaska

Sharing the profits generated by the oil sucked from the Alaska underground.

180

[stepnw1f]

12. I Don't Think So

And nobody should be allowed to extract anything from protected lands.

[oneighty]

13. You misunderstand

I am referring to the 'leasing' of Alaska oil deposits to the oil companies and those monies being shared with the citizens of Alaska via the Alaska Permanent Fund. It is (shhhh)sort of a socialistic program and it is why Stevens is hot to extract the oil.

Nationalize the natural resources.

180

[stepnw1f]

15. It Is Not Going to Be Shared with Anybody

And no it is not a sort of a "socialistic program". What a lie!

[oneighty]

17. Google 'Alaska Permanent Fund'

See for yourself how Alaska oil revenues are shared with the state of Alaska creating an annual dividend check for every man woman and child resident of the state of Alaska.

Yes and it is sharing the wealth generated by harvesting natural resources. Socialist by any standard. Too bad all the states do not have such a progressive idea.

Not a lie at all. Hee hee hee

180

[stepnw1f]

18. hee hee.... Yes It Is

It's destroying something more valuable than a couple years of oil.

Hee hee

[oneighty]

19. I fail to understand

why you deny the existence of the Alaska Permanent Fund. It might interest you to know that the same Socialistic program was suggested for the people of Iraq. (But quickly scrapped)

How progressive it is to be actually sharing mineral wealth with the people.

It is a great idea and on further searching I see the idea is spreading to other states in the USA. Bravo I say.

180

[stepnw1f]

21. Yeah... I Bet You Are Hoping We Destroy All Public Lands Too

just so the rich can get richer. Sharing my ass...

All you want is to drill or mine on public lands..

[oneighty]

22. Nonsense

You are not listening.

I do not wish to have any drilling in ANWAR.

Fact: Harvesting oil in ANWAR benefits the citizens of Alaska because by law they get a piece of the action through partial funding of their Alaska Permanent Fund in turn guaranteeing all Alaskans an annual dividend check. Socialism.

That is the reason Stevens wants to have the drilling commence ASAP.

180

[stepnw1f]

23. So Dishonest it Really Is a Waste of Time

If they allow companies to mine or drill in Park, all parks will be in danger. There is a grander agenda here and you and I know it.

more like 15%. Enjoy talking to yourself!

[Solon]

30. I think you two are talking past each other...

180 mentioned that Morales' program is similar in structure to Alaska's CURRENT system of "profit" sharing, and that both are socialistic in nature. This is a simple fact. You took that to mean that he was for drilling in ANWR, I don't know how you made that leap.

[killbotfactory]

8. But the oil companies invested a lot of money into this!

They had the forsight to bury the dinosaurs in the ground many years ago, and now they are rightfully reaping the profit! Darn those bolivians!

[Strelnikov_]

9. The CIA Is Going To Run Out Of Cruise Missiles . . .

oops, i mean 'accidents', at this rate.

Venezuela, Bolivia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, etc etc . . .

[David__77]

10. Excellent!

I hope this happens in all places in the developing world.

[LostinVA]

14. Good -- wish we would

[SoCalDem]

16. as resources SHOULD be.. Natural resources belong to the PEOPLE

of that country. they should not be in "private" hands , to be bought and sold for personal profit.

What do the local Bolivians gain when their natural gas is sold off to rich countries, and the result is that their land gets ravaged, their rivers polluted, and then THEY have no access top the natural gas themselves.

Every country should guarantee its populace a modicum of comforts.. heat, clean water, land to grow food, access to education & medical care..

[Vidar]

20. Good for Marales.

[cire4]

25. I sure hope this guy travels with alot of bodyguards....

I'm sure there are quite a few hits out on him already. And it wouldn't surprise me if at least some of those hits were traced back to Washington...

[BrotherBuzz]

27. Or traced to SOA or WHINSWC or whatever the hell they call it today

What is the SOA?

The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.

Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

http://www.soaw.org/new/type.php?type=8

[leesa]

26. Damned Commies!

Good for him. Taking care of his people.

[hollowdweller]

28. Having lived my whole life in a coal producing state

It is refreshing to see some countries taking steps to see that the natural resources of the area are benefiting the greatest number of citizens.

From what I have seen firsthand natural resource companies contribute very little in the way of jobs or wealth for the majority of people who must share the land with their operations.

Also most coal, oil, gas production is dirty and causes a degradation of living conditions for an area that really offsets any boost it gives to the area economically. Also the work is very hard and wears peoples bodies out and they get broken down and have to be subsidized by the taxpayers.

In addition since they DO generate a LOT of money for a FEW people, that allows those people to have excess money that they can use unfairly influence the political system in the areas they operate on.

The areas that are the richest in natural resources should be the most affluent, with the most educated people and best quality of life due to the money generated. However it is usually the exact opposite.

[Judi Lynn]

29. Morales to face difficulties at home and abroad

Morales to face difficulties at home and abroad
By Jan-Uwe Ronneburger Dec 19, 2005, 19:09 GMT

La Paz, Bolivia - Exit polls showing a victory for Evo Morales in Bolivia's presidential elections also confirmed a Latin American trend: leftist-nationalist governments.

Feeding the trend has been the experiment with neoliberalism, which brought economic reforms such as privatizations and opened markets and has proven unpopular in Latin America. Criticism of it was a backbone of Morales' campaign.

'The people have defeated the neoliberals,' Morales said Sunday night in a victory speech. '... We want to change the neoliberal model. Starting next year, we're going to change the history of Bolivia, with peace and social justice.'

Morales' target was not only conservative politicians at home but also what he calls U.S. imperialism abroad.
(snip/...)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southamerica/article_1070012.php/Morales_to_face_difficulties_at_home_and_abroad

[Julius Civitatus]

31. Countdown for a USA-sponsored coup-de-etat in Bolivia

Wasn't this way how it all started in Chile?

I'm depressed already. You know Cheney won't stay idle. We are talking oil here!

[BrotherBuzz]

32. Boliva has oil, but natural gas is the plum the robber barons want

Huge proven reserves of natural gas, and the game is on. The object of the game is to get a pipeline built to the Pacific coast so they can ship the compressed nautral gas to California. Oh, China wants a bit of it, too, so the rules might get a little dicey. Buckle up for the South American Gas Wars in the coming years.

[burrowowl]

33. Good on him!

Hopefully the parliment elections to occur soon back him up!