Bolivian nationalization may spur Andean leftists
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) – Evo Morales’ sudden energy nationalization in Bolivia could fuel growing demands for an end to the free-market economic policies that have done little to ease grinding poverty across the Andean region.
For Bolivia’s indigenous majority, this week’s nationalization decree and troop deployment at gas fields is the culmination of a struggle for the control of natural resources that is being played out in Ecuador and Peru too.
It also comes against the backdrop of growing state control of the oil sector in Venezuela, orchestrated by Morales’ main foreign ally, leftist President Hugo Chavez.
But Morales’ move, which alarmed investors and angered some friendly governments, is the most sweeping so far and could galvanize others in the region to go further in limiting foreign ownership.
“(The nationalization) will be seen in the region as someone making a choice and as an example of leadership,” said Xavier Albo, a Bolivian anthropologist who works for an NGO supporting indigenous groups.
“It could be seen as an audacious step toward sovereignty … Evo is already a source of inspiration in the region,” he said, adding Morales’ criticism of U.S. influence in the area has raised his regional profile.
His decision resonated in Peru, where the camp of nationalist Ollanta Humala, the first round winner of a presidential race, applauded the move.
“We respect what Bolivia has done … it is a search for autonomy,” said Gonzalo Garcia, who advises Humala on economics as he battles rival leftist Alan Garcia for the presidency.
“There’s a real need for Latin America to achieve an energy independence to bring down costs and pass the benefits on to the poor,” he added.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT BACKLASH
By nationalizing vast natural gas reserves, Bolivia’s first indigenous president has taken up the baton of increased state control from Chavez, even at the risk of alienating Brazil, its massive neighbor whose energy investments will suffer.
The hardline stance against Washington’s free-market prescriptions, which have done little for the 100 million Latin Americans living on $1 a day, is popular.
“It’s about time someone stood up to the foreign companies,” Carla Medrano said in the slum city of El Alto where priests gathered on Wednesday to thank Mother Earth for the energy nationalization announced by Morales on Monday.
Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, has more indigenous people than European descendants, while Ecuador and Peru have large Indian populations as well.
Some 50 million people live in the three countries that are the heart of the Andean region.
In unstable Ecuador, indigenous peasants have blocked roads in recent months to protest negotiations on a U.S. free trade pact.
Indigenous groups have also called for nationalization of the energy sector and particularly the expulsion of U.S. companies from South America’s No. 5 oil producer.
“(Bolivia’s nationalization) represents an important outside reference point for Ecuador’s indigenous movements that have lost power in recent years,” said Hernan Reyes, sociology professor at Ecuador’s branch of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences.
In Peru, Humala has won support with calls to champion the poor and scrap a trade deal with Washington.
Facing a second-round runoff next month, he says that while he does not plan to nationalize mining and energy companies, he wants to rewrite their contracts to increase the state’s participation.
But Larry Birns, director of the left-leaning Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, expects Morales’ influence to spread.
“He (Morales) is capable of becoming an important regional leader and (the nationalization) could be the opening salvo in a new battle to return to an era when state control of natural resources was unquestioned,” he said.
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