Bolivian government orders troops to take 'control' of oilfields

06.28.2005, 09:38 PM

LA PAZ (AFX) - Bolivia's government has ordered the armed forces to take 'physical control' of oilfields in a politically charged move amid continuing demands for full nationalization of the industry in South America's poorest country.

But the move does not mean an end to the operations of foreign multinationals, such as Britain's BP, Spain's Repsol, France's Total and Brazil's Petrobras, which have been here since 1997. <snip>

The move implements a law approved in May and which the multinationals have slammed as confiscatory. Monday's decree underscored that the industry should operate 'in the interest of all Bolivians'.

The new oil law doubled to 32 pct non-deductible taxes on the oil companies, and kept at 18 pct their royalty payments to the state. It also boosts the role of the state oil company YPFB in the production process. <snip>

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2005/06/28/afx2115747.html

decided to take private property for the public good. :rofl:

Just about every country has eminent domain allowing private -> public transfers. There's nothing new about this, not even in the US so far as the legal principles go.

If Bolivia turned around tomorrow and gave the fields away to some other private company, then that would look like what SCOTUS has now said is OK.

What normally happens in these circumstances is that Western/IMF countries will be desperate not to see this succeed.

In the 1960's Belgium and the CIA conspired with Mobutu and Tsombe to break off resource-rich Katanga province from the former colony of Belgian Congo. The Western business interests feared that nationalist prime minister Patrice Lumumba was going to expropriate their mining interests in Katanga.