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Demonstrators press for a piece of gas wealth in Bolivia
2007-02-03
Some 3,000 demonstrators demanding that their region benefit from Bolivia's natural gas wealth are threatening to take over a gas distribution plant in a move that could disrupt supplies to Brazil. A local assembly in Camiri, in the eastern province of Santa Cruz, has called for a takeover of the local facility belonging to Transredes, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Dutch giant Shell. The assembly refused to negotiate with socialist President Evo Morales, spokesman and leader Mirko Orgaz said. Morales' government has nationalized the gas and oil sectors but protestors in South America's poorest nation argue they have not seen benefits yet. They may move to take over the plant itself in the coming hours if their demands are not heard, Orgaz warned. Bolivia has the second-largest gas reserves in South America, after Venezuela. In May, Morales declared all foreign oil contracts unconstitutional, unnecessarily favorable to the foreign companies and ordered they be renegotiated, a process he called "nationalization." The symbolic value of the new contracts was key for Morales, a former legislator representing the interests of Bolivia's poor and one of the leaders behind mass demonstrations that toppled two presidents, largely over oil, gas and the distribution of wealth from those sources. Bolivia's main joint-venture partners are Petrobras of Brazil, Repsol of Spain, Total of France, British Gas of Britain, Pluspetrol of Argentina and Vintage of the United States. Brazil and Argentina are the two large purchasers of Bolivian gas.
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