AFP Article reprinted in Petroleumworld prior to visit by Spanish Vice-President, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, quotes Evo stating that Spain is a "strategic ally", and that he hopes to sign new contracts with Spanish owned conglomerate YPF-Repsol so it continues as a "partner." Further, he says he "really wants" to to sign new agreements with the international oil and gas companies doing business in Bolivia, including Petrobras. Lastly, he says there will not be "expulsion, expropriation or confiscation."
UPDATE: Spanish Paper 20 Minutos quotes Morales as saying that all "companies will receive judicial security," and that would be "the basis of any negotiation." In response to the Spanish demand, made by the Secretary of State for Cooperation, Leyre Pajín, that there be "judicial and physical security, as well as deepened commitment for democracy that contribute to create the basis to atract foreign investment."
Liar LiarSources in Bolivia tell me that Evo and the MAS government have a reputation for being completely untrustworthy - even for Bolivian politicians. Outside the country, they say that Evo is not merely two-faced, but three faced! He "says one thing in public, another in private, and then does something completely different." It remains to be seen what Evo does with Repsol.
4 comments:
first time here, came from your post on the Juan Cole site.
i offer that as an explanation if i've misunderstood you.
what, exactly is wrong with what Evo is doing? It seems to me he is creating confusion in the minds and wallets of western governments and corporations; which can only help him in negotiating a better deal for the sale of the Bolivian people's resourses.
i view the situation with the assumption that all, or at least most, prior Bolivian politicians were corrupt servants of western monied interests and sold resourses that belonged to the Bolivian people for personal profit.
If Evo were to pubicaly state this as justification for nullifying all existing contracts (as he is probably morally justified in so doing) then he would face a likely CIA sponsored coup or assassination attempt; or at best, a World Bank sponsored embargo that would cripple the nation.
If one takes a most positive view of him, I think he is attempting to leverage Bolivia's resources in order to provide a platform for constructing a modern integrated economy (as Chavez says he's doing). Unless you accept the worst case scenerio, in that Evo is yet another corrupt Latin American dictator, all he is doing is completing a business deal; selling his nation's resources, and is thus no more corrupt than the scores of dictators worldwide who conduct the same deals with US & European governments and corporations daily.
No, I am looking at it more from the perspective of watching a Latin American leader first of all alienate two countries, Brazil and Spain, with socialist governments, through the underhanded way he dealt with Petrobras and Repsol. Both countries normally would be considered major allies - particularly Brazil.
I watch a liar doing business with double-triple face; do you buy a car from them? Do you like a similar snake be your boss? your leader? your president? your husband? the teacher of your sons? an example for a nation? we non-white does'nt means be allowed to cheat. Be a son of a son of a son of a "colonized" does'nt means "fuck ANY spaniard". Resentido social, this is the word, the boss of a nation; i mean, of a "another" nation, not mine, hopefully.
wow. you really attract some intersting comments.
well, i don;t think there's too much danger in long term alienation of the Spanish and Brazilian governments. Though certainly "better" than most, they are by no means socialist, or even democratic socialist in nature (and certainy not in action). Niether is Evo, though perhaps a little further along on the spectrum.
The governments of Spain and Brazil while nominally socialist are still doing the bidding of capitalists (yes Petrobras and Repsol are to some extent nationalized, b ut it is the same elites in the highest echelons of the government as it is in the boardrooms). When it comes down to it, Evo has his hand on the pump of the natural gas they want, they will come for it, he is just trying to get the best price, and maintain a measure of control over the extraction (and its side effects).
I don't think he (or Chavez, or certainly not Lula - his claims of pragmatism displaying he is at least self-aware) are really all they claim to be, but they are certainly a step up from most leaders in the world. If Evo is duplicitous then that is, to some extent at least forced upon. Socilist leaders in Brazil and Spain will continue to negotiate and forge alliances with Bolivia as long as Evo remains relatively ideoligically pure, partially out of their own conscience, but mainly out of service to electoral politics. If their poepl elected "socialists" then they want to see them acting like it. At the same time the leadership of Brazil and Spain will negotiate and forge alliances with the US as well, because that's where they and their corporations can make money, in fact they will need to be more concilatory to the left-wing in order to counter the taint of dealing with the right.
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