President Morales of Bolivia Tightens Hold on Economy

President Evo Morales of Bolivia shares that his country now has decided to reinforce a deepened state of control of their economy. This was during the time of their energy nationalization's second anniversary and just merely days before they witnessed an all-out opposition-led autonomous vote which incidentally challenged all of his leftist reforms.

President Morales also announced that there will be a government takeover of the country's biggest telecommunications company, Entel, which is owned by the Italians. In addition to this, they will also be taking over four different energy companies.

This began as early as May 1, 2006, when police authorities have decided to occupy the headquarters of Entel, and Morales deployed additional security forces to man the oil fields of Bolivia.

No Turning Back Now

Such announcements also came at the time when the new residents of the wealthier farming region of Bolivia, Santa Cruz, decided to vote on a fateful Sunday in support of an autonomous referendum which they were hoping to be the repudiation of the Bolivian president.

Morales also shares that they admit there is now no turning back with regard to the charges they made, and that national unity remains to be the highest priority compared to other regional or even sectoral agendas. This was announced to a group of union worker rallyists. It has been more than a year since Morales' government announced that it wanted to take over Entel telecommunications, which is also a unit of the Italian company Telecom Italia. The Bolivian government also accused the Italian company of not being able to meet their commitments to actually make expansion plans of phone network coverage in Bolivia – hence, the takeover.

President Morales also mentioned that they have a 6.3 million dollar deal with Repsol, a Spanish oil company. This company agreed to cede their control of their Andina subsidiary to the government but will also retain a minor stake as well as a say in the management of their operations.

The Bolivian will also commit to pay more than thirty seven million dollars in order to takeover control of additional three stakes of other energy companies which the energy minister mentioned as a takeover by decree.

These other companies are also natural gas producers by the name of Chaco, which are owned by Bp (a British oil giant), Transredes (pipeline company) which is controlled by Ashmore Energy International (based in the Cayman Islands).