[Marxism] (no subject)

[Fred Feldman]

he Associated Press

Published: October 15, 2006
<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/16/america/LA_GEN_Bolivia_Mines_
Nationalization.php>
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/16/america/LA_GEN_Bolivia_Mines_N
ationalization.php

LA PAZ, Bolivia President Evo Morales on Sunday announced plans to
nationalize Bolivia's mines as part of an overhaul of the South American
country's mining regulations after a violent clash earlier this month
between rival miners' groups that killed 16 people.

Morales nationalized the South American nation's oil and gas reserves on
May 1, giving international companies six months to cede majority
control of their Bolivian operations to the state or leave the country.

"We started with hydrocarbons, and the next step are the minerals,"
Morales said while giving away tractors to local farmers in the town of
Challapata, 120 miles south of the capital La Paz.

"There will be some surprises with tin, silver and gold. These minerals
must pass to the Bolivian state under the social control of the Bolivian
people. That is the next urgent step we must take."

Newly appointed Mining Minister Guillermo Dalence said Sunday the
nationalization plan would be launched on October 31, the anniversary of
the first nationalization of mines during a national revolution in 1952.

Morales' words were a stronger reiteration of a nationalization plan he
put forth immediately following the deadly battle Oct. 5-6 between
independent and state-employed miners over the right to work the Huanuni
tin mine. Then Morales had said the state would only expropriate mines
where foreign operators had not invested sufficiently.

In the first half of 2006, Bolivian mines exported minerals worth US$483
million (€385 million), according to the Bolivian Institute of Foreign
Commerce. The metals, mostly zinc, silver, gold, and tin, together
represented Bolivia's largest export after natural gas.

Morales' administration is continuing negotations with independent
miners' cooperatives who stormed the Huanuni mine on October 5.
State-employed miners counterattacked, and the rival bands exchanged
gunfire and dynamite for two days before 700 riot police restored order.

Both groups see Huanuni's rich vein of tin as a source of steady
employment in South America's poorest country.

The government has proposed expanding the operations of national mining
company Comibol at Huanuni and other mines, and offering the independent
miners salaried state jobs.

However, the independents have rejected the offer, demanding that their
cooperatives be granted greater access to the Bolivia's mineral
deposits.

Though nationalized in 1952, many of Bolivia's mines have since been
privatized. While now under state control, the Huanuni mine was operated
between 2000 and 2005 by the British firm Allied Deals, now known as RBG
Resources.

Morales, a former coca-grower, was elected in December as Bolivia's
first indigenous president. Besides nationalizing the petroleum
industry, he has also called an assembly to rewrite the country's
constitution and proposed a dramatic land reform bill that would
redistribute unproductive land to Bolivia's poor.

International energy companies affected by the oil and gas
nationalization, including Brazil's state-run Petrobras and the Spanish
Argentine firm Repsol YPF, have until October 28 to sign new contracts
with the Bolivian government.

The nationalization process has suffered some set backs in recent
months, including the resignation of key energy officials and struggles
by Bolivia's own state petroleum company to assume control of the
country's oil and gas reserves, South America's second largest after
Venezuela.

While some Bolivian lawmakers have proposed pushing the deadline back to
allow negotiations to continue without pressure, Morales' administration
remains committed to the current deadline.