Told ya so. Newsweek chimes in this week on Evo Morales, and his position between the rock and the hard place of his social dreams and economic realities in Bolivia. One thing they highlight, something that I've harped on for months now, is that the capitalist gas and oil contracts that Bolivia blockaded itself over are actually contracts with socialists neighbor, Brasil, one of the biggest investors in Bolivia. Here are some excerpts from the "real" news:
"Bolivia now supplies half of Brazil's natural gas. Brazilians, in turn, buy a third of Bolivian exports, pay a fifth of La Paz's taxes and process about 40 percent of its soybeans . . .
Total foreign investment in Bolivia plunged to just $62 million in the first half of 2005, down from a peak of $600 million in 1998. . .
many analysts believe that good sense will prevail, if for no other reason than that Morales has little choice. Unlike Chavez, who is swimming in oil, Morales still has most of his energy windfall buried underground. To get at it, "Bolivia needs foreign capital far more than the world needs Bolivia's gas," says Ricardo Amorim, Latin American analyst for WestLB Bank. That may not be the message that Bolivia's restive majority is eager to hear. But it is one that its new leader can ill afford to ignore."
Does this sounds familiar to you, too?
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