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Bolivia Plans to Nationalize More Sectors
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Bolivia's leftist government said Tuesday it would extend control over mining, forestry and other sectors of the economy after President Evo Morales nationalized the country's huge natural gas industry. Foreign governments warned relations could be damaged.

Soldiers were posted at 56 gas installations around the country a day after Morales issued a decree that analysts say could drive petroleum companies from South America's poorest nation and isolate Bolivia from important allies like Brazil and Spain. "We're not expelling any company, but they will not earn much - not like before," Morales told Venezuela's Telesur on Tuesday. "We hope they'll remain partners and if they don't respect these laws, we'll make them respect them with political force."
That's going to encourage the companies to stay.
The move solidifies Morales' role alongside Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro in Latin America's new axis of communist socialist-inclined leaders united against "capitalist, imperialist" U.S. influence.

Morales said Monday that the gas decree "was just the beginning, because tomorrow it will be the mines, the forest resources and the land." Morales' planning minister earlier this month spoke of plans for "drastic reforms" of mining laws.

On Tuesday, Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said mining companies could face higher taxes and royalty payments and that the government will intensify enforcement of existing laws to break up big underdeveloped land holdings, apparently to turn them over to the poor.
They'll be racing to catch Zim-bob-we by this time next year.
In Santa Cruz, Bolivia's petroleum hub and the country's financial center, business leaders called for a one-day general strike Thursday to protest the nationalization plan. The use of the military "was an excessive measure and a media show that sends negative signals to the international community," said Gabriel Dabdoub, who heads the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Festivities begin Thursday!

Posted by: Steve White 2006-05-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=150560