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52 | HUMBERTO VACAFLOR ENERGY AND BAD LUCK IN BOLIVIA | 53 Brazil decided to buy Bolivian natural gas, but said it would only do so through a joint venture between YPBF and the Brazilian national oil company, Petrobrás. In 1993, under the privatization policies of President Sánchez de Lozada’s first term in office, Petrobrás and YPFB combined efforts to establish San Alberto as a major gas field. Petrobrás and YPFB started the project of building a pipeline, the longest one in South America. The Brazilian government announced its willingness to finance the pipeline even within Bolivian territory, as an advanced payment for the natural gas it would import. The process by which President Sánchez de Lozada carved up the company and sold its parts to international oil companies was called “capitalization” because the companies were invited to invest as partners of the Bolivian state. Even the ownership of the pipeline that was financed by Petrobrás went to an international company—Enron—only a few years before it collapsed in the most spectacular and corrupt bankruptcy in capitalist history. NATIONALIZATION II One should not conclude that all of Bolivia’s problems have been created by for- eigners or its covetous neighbors. Bolivians are perfectly capable of creating a disas- ter all on their own, as we have seen from recent government actions. The tensions that erupted in Bolivia in the fall of 2006 were caused by the decision of President Evo Morales to take control of all natural gas revenues, instead of redistributing them to the governors with whom he has an extremely tense relationship. Morales appeared not to realize that the riots that erupted that November in response to his decisions worsened Bolivia’s already poor reputation among foreign investors. Bolivia faces a major challenge in attracting sufficient investment to develop its natural gas deposits. Risk analysts concur that Bolivia is a bad place in which to invest. Bolivia has lost its reputation as a reliable supplier, and as a result, Brazil and Argentina are looking to find an alternative to Bolivian natural gas. Argentina is particularly at risk due to its domestic energy crisis and heavy dependence on Bolivian gas imports, which resurfaced in 2004. Leaders of these two countries do not admit that they are trying to find substitutes for Bolivian gas, but they are tak- ing serious steps towards this goal. It is difficult to blame them: in 2007 there were attempts by protesters from southern Bolivia to stop the normal flow of natural gas going to Brazil and Argentina. As a result of the May 2006 nationalization, Bolivian natural gas production has fallen to such a degree that output is insufficient to meet domestic demand. Exports to Cuiabá—a major Brazilian destination for Bolivian natural gas—were halted and exports to Argentina were cut in half. An integrated and stable ener- gy sector in Latin American requires reliable partners in the arrangements between sellers and buyers. Given the government’s actions, it will be very dif- ficult for the region to count on Bolivian natural gas and incorporate it into seri- ous economic policy. Bolivia is now in the middle of yet another revolution—called by its leaders “a nationalist stand.” Leaders of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), headed by Morales, have proposed dividing the Bolivian state into 36 separate entities as a way to empower indigenous peoples with decision-making capacity. Revenues collected from foreign companies are to be redistributed to the indigenous “nations.” However, even the government has been shocked by the indigenous peoples’ immediate response to these offers. For example, there are currently 264 mines under control of the ayllus† from the highlands. The gov- ernment didn’t suspect that these groups would react so quickly to their invi- tation to take economic power. And now the government is trying to control them because they realize that the Bolivian state will be left with little to do if everything is in the hands of originary communities. Now the government is backtracking and attempting to recentralize some of the opportunities offered to indigenous peoples. Yet reestablishing state authority in Bolivia will be dif- ficult, particularly in the wake of the May 2008 autonomy referendum in the department of Santa Cruz. CONCLUSION There is a special alliance of metals and natural resources in Bolivia that further demonstrates how these natural resources foment bad luck. Bolivia’s link to the international economy is the most ancient in all of South America.5 It boasts the largest silver deposit in the world, Potosí. The Spaniards began exploiting Potosí’s silver deposits in 1545, deciding at the time to also use coca leaves to overcome some glitches in the system of production. Miners, for example, were forced to remain inside the mines for six days at a time, from Monday to Saturday. To find the necessary stamina and offset hunger and fatigue, workers began chewing coca leaves. They were thus able to forget about eating, drinking water, resting, and even sleeping. † The ayllu is most commonly known as a form of indigenous local government used by the Incas and is still a model in the modern-day Andean region.PDF Image | Energy and Development in South America
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