Spanish:
 
|
Morales defends nationalisations at EU-Latin America summit
AP Photo/Virginia Mayo
Bolivia's President Evo Morales gestures while speaking during
a media conference at an EU Latin America summit in Vienna, Thursday May 11, 2006.
By Michael Adler
AFP
VIENNA
Petroleumworld.com 05 12 06
Bolivian President Evo Morales said Thursday that foreign oil companies would not be compensated for oil and gas resources that have been nationalised, and European Union president Austria called for explanations.
"If they (the companies) have earnings they can recover them, there is no reason to indemnify them," said Morales, a leftist who has nationalised Bolivia's energy sector, prompting widespread concern in Latin America and elsewhere.
Morales was speaking to reporters here on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America summit.
In answer to a Brazilian reporter's query as to why that country and its powerful state Petrobras oil company had not been notified in advance, Morales said: "We do not have to consult or inform anyone before taking a decision that involves our sovereignty."
In a separate press conference, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said it was "important that the Bolivian government make its intentions clear" as legal guarantees are "essential for investors."
But Morales said that "any company that respects our laws will have legal assurances."
The problem, he said, "is that companies have betrayed our country," which is the South American continent's poorest nation but has its second largest natural gas reserves after Venezuela.
Morales said many foreign firms operating in Bolivia had "not paid taxes and engaged in smuggling."
He said he wanted to defend the rights of Bolivia's "indigenous peoples" and would also be nationalising "the great land resources in our country," which includes mines.
The European Union and Latin America opened a three-day summit Thursday in Vienna with over 60 national leaders attending, including Venezuela's fiery, often anti-Washington President Hugo Chavez.
Human rights, the world's oil crisis and trade relations between the European and Latin American blocs were expected to top the agenda.
Anti-globalisation activists were already gathering Wednesday in Vienna for an "alternative summit" decrying free trade as exploitation of the poor.
Morales claimed a stunning victory when he won Bolivia's presidential election last December, becoming the country's first indigenous head of state.
He was elected on a pledge to take a bigger share of earnings from Bolivia's vast energy resources.
Foreign companies now have six months to renegotiate their contracts with Bolivia's state-run hydrocarbons company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB).
The May 1 decree affects 26 foreign producers, including such heavyweights as Petrobras, ExxonMobil of the United States, British Gas, Total of France and Repsol of Spain. It requires them to turn over to the Bolivian state company the ownership and exploitation of the country's energy resouces.
During the transition period, 82 percent of profits will go to the Bolivian state and 18 percent to the corporations.
The takeover came in the context of a regional political shift to the left that swept in tighter public control of oil and gas resources amid surging energy prices.
In a press conference of over an hour, Morales condemned the United States for military interventions and praised Cuba's Fidel Castro for managing to have a prosperous economy despite US sanctions against his country.
He also said Bolivia would fight drugs in a rational way that would avoid repressing the population.
Coca production would be reduced by working with farmers rather than forcing them immediately to stop all cultivation of the plant used to make cocaine.
"Not one dead, not one wounded, no repression," said Morales of his government's tactics in working with its people, saying that he himself was a coca farmer.
He had opened the press conference by reminding journalists that he came from a trade union background.
"Before Bolivia was considered to be a no-man's land, now it is considered to belong to the Bolivian people," said Morales, who was dressed casually with an open-necked shirt.AFP 11 1339 GMT 05 06
Copyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels