Posted on 05/06/2006 6:04:03 PM PDT by Kitten Festival
Latin America: For a relatively small nation, Bolivia has an uncanny way of shaking up a continent, which it did last week with energy nationalization. For democracies like Brazil, it could be a turning point.
In his surprise May Day announcement, President Evo Morales "nationalized" Bolivia's natural gas resources — not just by decree, but also by force. His leftist presidency was all of 100 days old as he moved in with a crude, 1960s-style seizure of 56 natural gas fields as well as private gas stations owned by Bolivians. All were taken as if by battle, with troops triumphantly placing "nationalized" banners across the installations they had "won."
Morales then declared he was finally ending the "looting" supposedly done by Bolivia's energy producers — those foreign investors who have had the faith (and steel nerve) to invest in Bolivia even in its continuous prior turmoil.
Problem was, there hadn't been any combat, there wasn't any looting and this wasn't a battlefield. Instead, we all saw a move against a couple of friends and allies from a suddenly strange predator. It was something unpleasantly new that ought to wake up the region.
Losers included not just the hated U.S., but also the accommodating socialist states of Brazil, Argentina and Spain, which have now forfeited state assets for their trouble. All remain in a state of shock that a fellow socialist could turn on them so fast.
Spain, after all, had just announced $120 million in Bolivian debt relief last January. Brazil had delivered $1.6 billion in technology, infrastructure, markets and jobs through its investments. But Morales had other priorities.
After pillaging their assets, Morales vowed to raise their gas prices.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Hint...Take a look at Morales's background.
I guess Lula De Silva is being forced to make a real choice here. He's not been reading dutifully from the Lefty script, and is likely to encounter a lot of problems from Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela in the near future.
It would be fitting to send in the navies of the countries that developed the gas fields and destroy them all, so that Evo can be left to start from scratch.
Of course this will never happen -- and would cause price shocks around the world -- but that's what is merited. I wonder what measures short of that are available.
Coming up, a massive Zimbabwe-scale human disaster, to be followed by PBS Frontline documentaries that assure us that it's Bush's fault.
Might have a hard time reaching Bolivia that way.
Psssssst! Better send the armies.
Bolivia is landlocked.
"Psssssst! Better send the armies. Bolivia is landlocked."
My bad. I'm having trouble keeping these South American autocrats straight anymore. I wonder how much longer the media will continue to call them 'Leftists' while they continue to behave as fascists?
Amusing.
I love it! I was in Spain when Evo visited just after his election. It was his first visit on his tour of Europe as a head of state and Zapatero fell all over himself trying to lick Evo's running shoes. And now those little shoes have kicked him in the teeth! Surprise...
This nut is an A Number One @$$hole.
"Morales' confiscations have probably ended forever the notion of socialist brotherhood."
Anybody want to bet on this?
(Paraguay itself spent 1865-70 at war with all five of its neighbours, which essentially exterminated the native Guarani).
Back to Bolivia. It has had over 270 coups d'etat and revolutions in its history - actually that number is over 20 years old. It has been running an average of about two a year.
This is the place the Fidel sent Che to liberate in 1967. Fidel did better on "getting Guevara out of my hair" than Dr. G did on the liberation thing. He did get liberated from this mortal life.
The essential fact in Bolivia is race. Since before independence, a small coterie of white Castilian-descended aristos have run the country, while the vast majority of the people, Quechua and Aymara indians, live a Hobbsean state-of-nature life, "the war of each against each." Just one figure, life expectancy, 43 years, tells the tale of their lives.
Despite that, the peasants have been bad material for university-spawned revolutionaries, which Bolivia has in quantity. This Ché found out to his everlasting regret. Morales is ethnically one of the peasants, but philosophically one of the university based agitators. Right now, the peasants back him because they see a brown face like theirs in power and they think, why not? We've tried everything else... but their tune will change when Morales's promised millennium instead becomes a millenium (what you get when you have a thousand of "anus" instead of "annus"!).
Then Morales will, as Chavez does, use the military to hold power. But there's a problem -- Chavez comes out of the military, where he had a following of his own before entering politics. So at some point, Morales will need the soldiers to shoot some peasants, and instead, they're gonna turn on him. That's coming like a train on a track.
Now, Morales isn't stupid, he knows this. Which is why hundreds of Cuban "experts" are in Bolivia tonight.
These guys don't know much about oil and not much about growing anything, but they run a mean secret police.
The race is on, between the Cubanos and the military officers. And if Morales's team wins, he's going to find that the foreign control he raved about is reality, and he brought it on himself.
d.o.l
Criminal Number 18F
It is a real good thing we are working on energy security, because these populists are creating a lot of insecurity.
Not to mention, his cabinet. His justice minister's last paid employment was ... maid.
Very well explained indeed, C18F!
Good analysis, but another racial factor in Bolivia is the Guaranis (mestizo) who are the majority population in the Santa Cruz area where all the natural gas is - and they hate Morales. At a recent speech he gave in Santa Cruz, Morales was shouted down with cries of "thief" and "liar."
send the navies to a landlocked country?
I'd like to see him go after Chile's land. Chile has twice the population, four times the GDP per capita, and spends sixteen times as much on its military.
Couldn't find it just now but there's a Scripture about how terrible it is when a slave becomes a king. At first, I didn't understand it. Over the years, I've understood it quite well.
Insecurity, poverty, abuse can breed a particularly destructive kind of ignorant pride.
You're too sensible! LOL.
Thanks.
That reads like a very astute and knowledgeable analysis, to me.
Another amusing thing is that we call countries like Brazil and Argentina "socialist", but do not apply the same term to the US. The US Government's budget is 20% of GDP while the budgets for "socialist" Argentina and Brazil are at 23% and 22%. And that probably underestimates the socialism of the US, where many state governments spend a healthy chunk of GDP as well. Spain, where the budget is 44% of GDP is the clear standout in this group.
A waste of time. Evo will destroy this industry all by himself, just as that clown in Venezuela is doing to their industry.
Thanks for posting. Interesting.
Well said.
correction: ignorant thug. Bolivia will now find out what it's like to go from the frying pan into the fire.
Thanks for your kind words.
May you and your family have a blessed rest of Sunday and week.
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