Bolivia: It’s All about the Gas Revenues

[Joanne98]

Written by Franz Chávez
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
(IPS) - Revenues from Bolivia’s sales of natural gas, which have ballooned in the last few years, are now at the centre of the tense political polarisation threatening to tear the country apart and are a main motivation in the opposition’s attempt to undermine the leftwing government of Evo Morales.

Gas revenues soared from 188 million dollars in late 2001 to 1.57 billion dollars in 2007, after the Morales administration forced foreign oil companies to renegotiate the terms of their contracts, thus increasing the royalties and taxes paid by the companies.

The revenues now represent one-seventh of Bolivia’s gross domestic product (GDP) of 11 billion dollars, and have become the main source of income for the governments of the country’s nine provinces.

In 2007, the government distributed 737 million dollars in natural gas taxes to the nine provinces, according to figures provided to IPS by the Energy Ministry.

That figure was 446 million dollars higher than the first distribution of the new direct hydrocarbons tax (IDH), in 2005, when the then government of interim president Eduardo Rodríguez created the tax aimed at transferring money to the provincial governments.

Today the pie to be carved up is enormous. Senator Fernando Rodríguez of the rightwing opposition Podemos coalition told IPS that the total gas revenues taken in by the state will easily reach four billion dollars this year, based on natural gas exports to Brazil and Argentina and domestic fuel sales.

The seemingly unstoppable rise in the international price of oil has also boosted the country’s gas income, despite the fact that gas sales to Brazil and Argentina have declined due to growing domestic demand for gas in Bolivia, even though this country has the largest natural gas reserves in South America -- 47 trillion cubic feet -- after Venezuela’s.

Rodríguez said that under the current law on the distribution of natural gas revenues, 440 million dollars should go to the gas-producing regions of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Chuquisaca and Tarija, and 160 million to the remaining five provinces.

But the huge windfall profits prompted Morales to divert a substantial portion of the transfers to the provinces into a universal pension fund for people over 60, which expanded the number of eligible elderly people from 489,000 to 676,000, providing them with the equivalent of 27 dollars a month.

A source with the provincial government of Tarija, the country’s most natural gas-rich province, told IPS that this year, the transfers to the provincial governments will be 260 million dollars less than in 2007, as a result of the pension programme.

José Antonio Aruquipa of Podemos, a member of the constituent assembly that is rewriting Bolivia’s constitution, told IPS that the movement for autonomy in the provinces of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija is fuelled by the aim of gaining greater provincial control over gas revenues. "Without the IDH, autonomy is a vehicle without gasoline," he said.

Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, is basically divided between the western highlands, home to the impoverished indigenous majority, and the much wealthier eastern provinces, which account for most of the country's natural gas production, industry, agribusiness and GDP. The population of eastern Bolivia tends to be of more European (mainly Spanish) and mixed-race descent.

The rightwing opposition argues that the national government only needs 200 million dollars, rather than the 260 million dollars that it currently retains from the natural gas revenues for the pension for the elderly.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1399/68/

Right-wingers are the same all over the world. Selfish and evil.

[Peace Patriot]

1. Yes, fascists are the same everywhere--also funded by your tax dollars (through Bushite fingers).

Bush Junta controlled USAID-NED funds--and, no doubt, funds from budgets we know not of--are being funneled into groups like these white racist secessionists in Bolivia, to destroy democracy and social justice wherever it arises. The Bushites support, fund, train, organize and likely arm these groups. Secession and civil war is the only way they can restore global corporate predator control of the oil and other resources--and also get the World Bank/IMF loan sharks, ruinous, anti-labor "free trade" and the failed, corrupt, murderous "war on drugs" back on track--since the South Americans insist on transparent vote counting, and have banded together to resist Bushite assassination/ fascist coup plots. Ecuador's President, Rafael Correa, says there is a three-country strategy by the Bushfucks to instigate secessionist movements in the oil rich provinces of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. And the one in Venezuela may be why the Bushites re-instituted the 4th Fleet (a nuclear fleet) in the Caribbean, this summer, to roam around off the coast of Venezuela's Zulia province, where all the oil is. Zulia is also adjacent to Colombia (which has received $6 BILLION in military aid through Bushite fingers, and which has one of the worst human rights records on earth). I've seen a transcript of Colombia authorities (including Uribe) discussing possible secession of Zulia. Correa says there were secessionist meetings in Ecuador as well, and that the strategy is coordinated.

Reports regarding the recent Betancourt hostage 'rescue' indicate that there is a "war room"--high tech military surveillance and coordination center--in the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. It is fairly certain that the Bushwhacks were behind the bombing/raid on Ecuador in March (which was intended to prevent Betancourt from being released to French, Swiss and Spanish envoys, who were in Ecuador for that purpose, back in March, by blowing away the camp of the chief FARC hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, with ten U.S. "smart bombs," killing him and 24 other sleeping people, without benefit of trial, and without notifying Ecuador; almost started a war between Colombia and Ecuador).

Where does the FARC fit into this picture now? The FARC's ability to recover from recent setbacks should not be underestimated. They've been fighting the Colombian military and its death squads for over 40 years. Also, as the article points out, they are a prime excuse for lavish militarization of Colombia (not to mention for whacking 39 union leaders this year alone). In that respect--Bushite geopolitics--they are like Osama bin Laden: the purpose is not to solve the problem but to perpetuate war. This is likely why leaders like Correa and Morales, Chavez in Venezuela, Lula da Silva in Brazil and Cristina Fernandez in Argentina have been made such strenuous efforts to broker a peace in Colombia, and to get the FARC to release hostages and demobilize. Another factor in this situation is the rumored $2 million to the FARC as ransom for Betancourt (in the recent rescue 'stunt' designed to give John McCain a boost--who just happened to be on hand when it occurred). The old guard FARC leftists are out of the picture now--one killed by the U.S./Colombia bombing, one died of natural causes (apparently). And Chavez had a rather surprising meeting with Uribe to "bury the hatchet," recently. (Uribe--former Medellin Cartel; now Bush Cartel--had accused Chavez of supporting "terrorism." LOL. 39 dead union leaders is not terrorism?) Chavez again told the FARC to release all hostages and disarm. But this meeting with Uribe could mean that Chavez is disgusted with the new FARC leadership over the ransom, and perhaps knows that Reyes was killed because he would not be bribed. (True blue to the end.) Chavez's goal is peace. His every action over the last year--and before--points that way. He sees the path to peace being integration of Colombia into the newly forming South American "Common Market" (UNASUR) and a common defense (recently proposed by Brazil). The biggest danger in Colombia is that someone like Def Minister Santos (who tried to sabotage the Uribe-Chavez meeting) will get the upper hand, and create an all-out military dictatorship in cahoots with U.S. civil war plans against Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. If that happens, among other things, the FARC will have a new recruiting cause.

Social justice, development and regional integration require peace. These are the three pillars of the Chavez government. A continued conflict in Colombia, and along Venezuela's and Ecuador's borders, benefits no one but the war profiteers and the bad guys after the oil. Chavez tried to broker a peace between the old guard FARC and the Colombian government. The Bush Junta (and the Colombian military/Santos) destroyed that effort. And it has become clear that, while Uribe is bad, Santos is worse.

It may seem odd that the Bush Junta, having failed to get their big prize, Iran (for various reasons including China and Russia), would be planning to START Oil War II-South America with only 4-5 months left of their reign of terror in the White House. But I think there is reason to believe that this is a policy of the entire U.S. political/corporate establishment, not just the Bushcons. Under Obama, it might be handled differently--he looks the other way while the Colombian military, Blackwater and local fascist militias accomplish secession--or, our sons and daughters could be slogging the Amazon getting shot at for Exxon Mobil within six months, no matter who gets Diebolded into the White House. The global corporate predators who rule over us MUST have that oil. Continued World Bank/"free trade" robbery of the poor in South America is ESSENTIAL to their lifestyles and their power. They CANNOT permit democracy and social justice to flourish "in their own backyard" (or we might get ideas). And I think Obama is pretty helpless before these corporate rulers (or is in their pockets - hard to say which). When JFK frustrated their plans in Cuba, he got whacked. When RFK threatened to frustrate their plans in South American and Vietnam, he got whacked. Capitalist predation is not possible without bloody enforcement, and that has never been more true in our history than it is now. Denied Iran, they MUST have the Andes oil fields. They won't get them, in my opinion. But they could cause a lot of suffering and grief trying.

[Demeter]

2. K&R

be strong, Bolivia. Be brothers and sisters.