Bolivia's Morales takes Chavez's lead, nationalizes four energy, telecom companies

The Bolivian government has continued its nationalization of key industries, seizing control of oil, gas and telecom companies.

RENO, NV - 

Bolivian President Evo Morales celebrated May 1 in the true populism style of his political mentor Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by nationalizing the local operations of three foreign energy companies as well as a telecom company.

Morales may be implementing a Chavez-modeled takeover of foreign-operated business institutions to secure absolute power, but lacks Chavez's oil revenues.

In an announcement on the May 1 workers' holiday, Morales said the government was taking control of BP's natural gas subsidiary Chaco, Houston-based Ashmore Energy's Transredes pipeline company, and CLHB, which is controlled by Germanan and Peruvian firms.

"Starting today, the state has 51 percent of share in all our energy companies," Morales declared in a statement posted by the state news agency, Agencia Boliviana de Informacion (ABI). "We've said we need partners and not bosses, we truly need investment and we will guarantee the company's rights if they respect our norms."

"Basic services-call them energy, water or communications-cannot be in the hands of private business," Morales said Thursday. "They're public services."

The government will pay more than $37 million to acquire majority controlling stakes of each of the three energy companies it has nationalized, Bolivian Energy Minister Carlos Villegas told the news media. The government plans to expropriate 100% of CLHB.

Morales also declared the nationalization of Telecom Italia subsidiary Entel. The company was originally privatized in 1996 during the government of former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. The President also announced a $6.3 million deal with Spanish oil company Repsol, which will sell control of its Adina subsidiary to the government, but retain a minority stake.

Meanwhile, Morales is also dealing with a political crisis as the eastern province of Santa Cruz, whose residents are scheduled to vote on an autonomy referendum on Sunday. If Santa Cruz Gov. Ruben Costas wins the vote by a landslide as polls suggest, the same would likely also happen in an autonomy referendum slated for June in the provinces of Beni, Pando and Tarija and that the country's wealthiest regions will secede from Morales' Indian majority government.

However, Costas says that greater regional autonomy will help keep Bolivia united. Advocates say they want to create a middle level government. Santa Cruz says it wants greater control of its resources, while recognizing it must pay taxes to the central government.

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