Defiant Morales says exploitation of Bolivia is over

[Judi Lynn]

Defiant Morales says exploitation of Bolivia is over
By Reuters, Vienna, May 11

Bolivia’s new left-wing leader, Evo Morales, started his first visit to Europe as president on Thursday with a vow to end what he said were centuries of foreign “pillaging” of his country.


Arriving at a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Vienna, former labour activist Morales was in no mood to bow to pressure to compensate firms including Spain’s Repsol, Britain’s BG and France’s Total for his nationalisation of their Bolivian operations on May 1.

“For more than 500 years our natural resources have been pillaged and our primary goods exported. This has to be ended now,” said Morales, who won December elections promising to use the country’s natural resources to help the poor majority.

Companies should only be compensated for assets taken over by the state, but not for loss of operating concessions as long as they have recouped their investments via profits, he said.
(snip/...)

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f07fcaf0-e0fd-11da-90ad-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=80fdaff6-cbe5-11d7-81c6-0820abe49a01.html

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DEFIANT?????? I think they mean "uppity."

Viva Morales.

[David__77]

1. Land, water, and minerals belong to the people of a country.

It is their right to assert their national sovereignty over these things.

[stepnw1f]

2. Absolutely

afterall... it is a Democracy where society is supposed to share it's prosperity.

[arikara]

3. Good for them!

I wish Canada would do that too. Our resources are being shipped out of our country and then we're importing the same comodities back in for domestic use and of course being overcharged for them. Insanity. We need to follow SA's lead and take our power back from the corporations and the corporately backed governments.

K&R!

[bemildred]

4. Definitely "uppity".

Mr. Morales is the sovereign leader of Bolivia, he has no master but the Bolivian people.

[cantstandbush]

5. Go Morales, go Chavez. Natural resources for "the people" not

the oligarcy! I only hope they will really continue to work for their people.

[fshrink]

6. This one is gonna lose his US visa too. nt

[Peace Patriot]

7. They don't have any excuse for it. That isn't to say they won't do it.

With Ollanta Humala--the leftist who is the lead presidential candidate in Peru--they had the excuse that his brother bombed a police station (so the news articles say) and some obscure immigration law that you can't be related to a "terrorist." They rescinded Humala's visa more than a year ago, and only announced it this week--in the midst of the presidential election--obviously to embarass Humala, deny him access to important policy meetings, and harm his campaign. But the Bush junta probably has MINUS 30% approval ratings in South America these days, and the impact will probably be more votes for Humala. (What would minus-30% mean? Not even the dogs and cats like Bushite fascists?)

-------------------------

"The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales

[fshrink]

8. We have now a specialty of fabricating excuses.

Even better than the old USSR.

[Vidar]

13. "Back in the USSR" for Republican National Anthem.

[Terran1212]

9. right on

[PassingFair]

10. Waaaaaa! Poor Bechtel!

They're gonna NEED that 540,000 in small bills....
if they could JUST REMEMBER what they did with
the dufflebag!

[rucky]

11. I guess that makes him a "dictator" too.

:shrug:

[stepnw1f]

12. Excellent! (nt)

[Vidar]

14. Morales & Chavez give me hope.

[ProudDad]

15. Viva Evo, Viva Hugo, Viva Fidel

fuck capitalismo, screw the owners of the USA!

[peacebuzzard]

16. Bikini clad Greenpeace activist disrupts the suits....

Morales said it was the best moment of the summit

(It certainly looks like it!! All you populists get up and dance!!)

[peacebuzzard]

17. corporations, conservatives gag w/ Morales& Chavez. grassroots victory

for the people and grassroot activism....

[mom cat]

18. Now we need to stand up and say that the exploitation of the earth is over

[happydreams]

19. Why am I sorta glad Bush stole the White House?

Something keeps telling me if the dem neo-liberals had been in power the same old imperialist terror campaign would have succeeded in crimping the progressive movement in Latin America. Bush's incompetence has given these leaders a fighting chance. :crazy: