Current Affairs

Spain Herald:

Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Bolivian president Evo Morales met on Friday for about 45 minutes in Vienna at the EU-Latin American summit there. Zapatero said the meeting had been “positive, sincere, and clarifying,” but did not mention any advantage over the agreement previously negotiated by a Spanish delegation in La Paz.

He did announce that Morales had sent an official letter praising Spain’s cooperation, in contradiction of the harsh accusations Morales had launched last Thursday. Morales’s letter said that he had never accused Spain of not fulfilling its commitments to Bolivia, but instead expressed hope that aid to development and debt forgiveness “would soon be a reality.” Meanwhile, PP leader Mariano Rajoy demanded that Zapatero defend Spanish interests in Bolivia and that Morales obey the law and international agreements.

And so he is putting into effect the cooperation: Spain Herald

Bolivian president Evo Morales said yesterday that his nationalization of Bolivian fossil fuel resources “does not expel or expropriate anyone,” to the applause of the Euro-MPs. Meanwhile, the Bolivian government announced that Spanish bank BBVA must turn over the shares in Andina, Repsol’s Bolivian subsidiary, that it manages through a pension fund, within three days.

“These pension funds will be closed down in three days if they do not obey the decree. That’s it,” said Bolivian vice president Alvaro García Linera, who signed a further decree allowing Bolivia to “take absolute control” over the fuels industry.

BBVA and Zurich Financial Service have managed two Bolivian pension funds since 1997. They were created with the government’s shares resulting from the partial privatization of Bolivian state companies in strategic sectors carried out during the 1990s, which attracted a great number of foreign investors.

Just a few minutes previously, Morales told the European Parliament, “Any company that invests in my country has the right to recover its investment and make a profit, but not to have control. They will be partners, not the owners of our natural resources.” He added, “Without social security, there can be no legal security.”

EL MUNDO reports:

they will have to hand to Bolivian state the shares they are managinig in the oil companies Andina (48%), which belongs to Spanish-Argentinian Repsol YPF; Transredes (34%), from the US Enron and the Dutch Shell, and Chaco (48%), from British Petroleum. These companies were created with the division of the State Company Bolivian Fiscal Oil fields (or Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos), which will recover control over them. They represent (approx.) 700 of the $1,600 million which this fund has.

Tags: BBVA, Bolivia, British Petroleum, Enron, European Union, Evo Morales, Shell, Spain, Zapatero, Zurish Financial Services