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Syndicated News from BoliviaThat Kosovo, Goldberg, Bolivia ThingDate Added: Sat, 17 May 2008 00:18:34 GMT
Illegal Autonomy Referendum Deepens Division in BoliviaDate Added: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:20:06 GMT
The Santa Cruz Autonomy Vote: What People are SayingDate Added: Thu, 01 May 2008 23:32:26 GMT
Democracy Now Interview, and a Comment on CommentsDate Added: Tue, 06 May 2008 21:45:30 GMT
The World Bank Tries to Re-Write Bolivian HistoryDate Added: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:55:59 GMT
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Results 1 - 10 of 2 Headlines for Bolivia
Bolivia HeadlinesResults Page: 1,NATURAL GAS CONSORTIUM PRESSURING BOLIVIAN GOVERNMENT?Date Added: Monday, September 2nd, 2002Contributed by: RCN Administrator
The Bolivian government has asked private international consortium Pacific LNG to explain immediately, in writing, why it sought design and construction bids last June for a natural gas pipeline from southeast Bolivia’s Tarija region to the port of Patillo, in northern Chile. The proposed pipeline is part of an ambitious, $6 billion plan to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the Pacific Coast of Mexico and the United States by 2005.
Bolivian officials have not yet decided whether the proposed pipeline will run to northern Chile or to an alternative port in southern Peru. Pacific LNG’s partners -- including Repsol-YPF, BG and BP -- prefer a route through Chile, but Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is under strong political pressure to choose Peru instead. The consortium probably sought premature bids in an effort to apply pressure of its own on the president. For Sanchez de Lozada, the stakes are high: Pacific LNG executives warned months ago that they likely would abort the gas export project altogether if a Peruvian port were chosen. And that would leave poverty-ridden Bolivia with little or no prospect of monetizing its 1.5 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves during the next decade. Most Bolivians still resent Chile for seizing their country’s coastal access in the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific. The resulting political pressure on Sanchez de Lozada to choose Peru for the LNG export route is so great that, shortly after assuming the presidency on Aug. 6, he said no decision would be announced before December. By postponing a decision that was expected before presidential elections in June, the country’s new leader likely was seeking to buy time to build a domestic political consensus in favor of Chile. But his political calculations have been upset by the disclosure that Pacific LNG quietly sought bids in June through U.S. multinational Bechtel for the design and construction of a pipeline to a Chilean port. The consortium likely had two reasons for such a move. The first was its own need to remain competitive in the global race to supply LNG to consumers in western Mexico and the U.S. West Coast, mainly California. The longer Bolivia delays a decision on the pipeline’s route, the less likely Pacific LNG would be to bring its LNG project onstream before other competing consortia. The second reason, however, was to reinforce a strong message: If local politics force the government to choose a Peruvian route over Chile, the government can expect Pacific LNG to abort the project altogether. Even before the June 30 presidential elections, executives told former President Jorge Quiroga that their consortium’s financial, engineering and environmental studies confirmed the port of Patillo, Chile was the best option for the pipeline, LNG plant and export terminal. Bolivian Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Morales said that Sanchez de Lozada’s decision would be based on the government’s own studies instead of those done by Pacific LNG and Bechtel. However, it is clear that if Peru is chosen over Chile, Pacific LNG will leave Bolivia.Results Page: BOLIVIA: FREE-MARKET POLICIES HANG IN BALANCEDate Added: Monday, July 8th, 2002Contributed by: RCN Administrator
Bolivian indigenous leader Evo Morales has been declared the runner up in last week’s presidential elections, coming in second behind former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Since no candidate won a simple majority of 50 percent plus one vote, Bolivia’s Congress will decide which of the two will be the country’s next president on Aug. 4
Under Bolivia’s constitution and election rules, at least 80 votes in Congress -- which contains 130 deputies and 27 senators -- are needed to win the presidency. Morales has the support so far of eight senators and 27 deputies, while 11 senators and 36 deputies are allied with Sanchez de Lozada, Agence France-Presse reported. The two candidates are polar opposites in every way. Sanchez de Lozada is a U.S.-educated businessman, staunch advocate of free-market economic policies and veteran political insider who leads the liberal Nationalist Revolutionary Movement party. Morales is a fierce defender of indigenous rights and peasant coca growers, as well as an outspoken foe of U.S. anti-drug and trade policies in Bolivia. If Congress taps Sanchez de Lozada -- a move that would be motivated in part by concerns over the U.S. reaction in particular to choosing populist Morales -- he likely would continue current free-market and anti-drug policies that the Bush administration supports financially and politically. However, continuing these policies would carry a high domestic political cost, as Sanchez de Lozada would face opposition in Congress and on Bolivia’s streets from free-market adversaries like Morales’ Movement to Socialism party and the populist New Republican Force party, led by third-place presidential candidate Manfred Reyes Villa. Other political parties that likely could oppose a Sanchez de Lozada government include the socialist Revolutionary Left Movement party of Jaime Paz Zamora, who finished in fourth place with 16.31 percent of the vote, and indigenous leader Felipe Quispe Huanca’s Indigenous Pachakuti Movement party. Huanca placed fifth with about 6.09 percent. On the other hand, if Congress instead chooses Morales to be Bolivia’s next president, the indigenous leader has vowed to expel the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, scrap the government’s free-market economic policies, re-nationalize many privatized industries and reject a proposal to build a 400-mile-long natural gas pipeline to a port in northern Chile. This development is part of a planned $5.8 billion liquefied natural gas project advanced by Pacific LNG, a consortium that includes Repsol-YPF, British Gas and a subsidiary of British Petroleum. On July 8, the New York Times quoted Edward Miller, general manager of British Gas Bolivia, as stating that Pacific LNG would only agree to build a natural gas pipeline to a Peruvian port (instead of a Chilean port) unless the Bolivian government puts up an additional $600 million. Morales may owe his unexpected second-place finish to Manuel Rocha, the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, who injudiciously warned voters a few days before the June 30 elections that if Morales won the presidency, then the U.S. government might be obliged to cut off all aid to Bolivia. Pollsters with Reyes Villa’s campaign claim that the U.S. ambassador’s warning gave Morales an immediate 10-point boost in voter preferences. Sanchez de Lozada and Morales already are exploring possible coalitions that could give them the 80 votes needed to win the presidency. It is almost certain that Sanchez de Lozada will negotiate an alliance with lame-duck President Jorge Quiroga’s center-right Nationalist Democratic Action party, although the fact that it won only 3.4 percent of the presidential vote raises questions about its continued political viability. However, it is not yet clear whether Sanchez de Lozada will try to negotiate political pacts with either Reyes Villa’s right-wing party or Paz Zamora’s socialist party, or if he will try to form an alliance with both to get the 80 votes. At the same time, while it appears at first glance that Morales should have an easier time building political coalitions than did Sanchez de Lozada -- due to the high number of anti-free trade groups in Congress -- Morales may have to reverse his stated refusal to negotiate either with Reyes Villa or Paz Zamora to accomplish this. Despite Morales’ stance, Paz Zamora said immediately after the elections that he would do whatever was needed to deny Sanchez de Lozada the presidency, while Reyes Villa said he would support Morales if the indigenous leader finished in second place. But, although Paz Zamora has not hidden his enmity toward Sanchez de Lozada, including describing him as "a clone of (former Argentine Economic Minister Domingo) Cavallo (who prescribed the same kinds of free market policies supported by Sanchez de Lozada)," it is possible that either Paz Zamora, or some members of his party, may choose to negotiate political deals with Sanchez de Lozada on the belief that it is better to deal with an enemy with whom you are familiar than with an unknown. Longtime insider Paz Zamora may especially see the rapid rise of outsider populists Morales and Reyes Villa as a greater threat to his party’s future and his own political ambitions than is Sanchez de Lozada’s party. |
