Why is a Bolivia referendum expected to nationalize oil companies there?
Bolivians voted in large numbers Sunday in a referendum expected to allow the government to exert greater control over U.S. and other foreign gas companies and perhaps even nationalize the energy sector. Complete and official results were not expected before Monday, but opinion polls ahead of Sunday’s energy referendum suggested a majority of Bolivians support President Carlos Mesa’s plan to repeal a 1996 hydrocarbons law that opened up Bolivia’s vast and virtually untapped natural gas deposits for exploration and exploitation. The law permitted foreign energy companies to exploit Bolivia’s natural-gas reserves. Opinion polls and voter interviews suggested Mesa would win approval to step back from U.S.-backed economic policies that Bolivia has followed for a decade. Mesa has said he will honor prior contracts reached with U.S. and other foreign gas companies. But with the weight of a referendum behind him, Mesa will have leverage as he seeks “voluntary” renegotiation of gas concessions
Morales nationalises oil company ahead of referendum Saturday 24 January 2009 On Friday, just two days before a referendum on a new constitution championed by his majority, Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, nationalised the oil firm Chaco, managed by Anglo-Argentine company Panamerican Energy. AFP – Bolivia’s President Evo Morales on Friday nationalised the Chaco oil company, managed by Anglo-Argentine Panamerican Energy. “Little by little, we are taking back our companies,” Morales said in Chaco’s offices in the central town of Entre Rios, after signing the nationalization decree. The left-wing president has had his government take over several companies in Bolivia’s important gas and oil industry, as well as others in telecoms and mining, since taking power in 2005. The nationalisation of Chaco took place just two days before a referendum on a new constitution Morales has championed. If passed, as expected, the revised basic law would define Bolivia as a socialist state and give far
