6 January 2006Irish Examiner.com
Bolivia's President-elect Evo Morales has said during a visit to the Netherlands that nationalising his country's energy reserves was key to wiping out poverty, but that changes should happen gradually to avoid upheaval.Bolivia's proven and potential natural gas reserves total 53.3 trillion cubic feet and are second only to Venezuela in South America, according to the US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.The Netherlands is the only natural gas producer in the European Union, supplying energy to Germany, Belgium, Italy and France.Earlier yesterday, Morales visited EU headquarters in Brussels, where EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged him to safeguard economic stability and judicial security to preserve EU investment in his country."Bolivia needs foreign investment to tackle its problems. Stability in the country is therefore essential," Javier Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.Solana also pressed Morales to keep controls on coca, saying any unilateral decision to increase acreage limits to satisfy legal consumption would have damaging consequences for Bolivia."We want to eradicate poverty and achieve social justice," Morales said. In order to achieve that, he said Bolivia must nationalise oil and gas resources and exploit them in partnerships with commercial businesses."We would like the oil companies to be partners, but not to be owners. We want to control the companies, so we are going to nationalise the companies." Morales vowed to seek peaceful, democratic change as his country shifts to a left-wing leadership."Things are changing in Latin America and in Bolivia especially, but we want those changes to take place democratically, to avoid violence, and do everything through voting. Now there are great expectations and we know that we must deliver."Morales is set to become the first Indian leader in Bolivia's 180-year history, after winning nearly 54% of the December 18 vote on a pledge to nationalise energy resources."During my tour of Europe I have been very happy to see how much solidarity there is towards the countries in Latin America. It will be useful to work together and look for solutions together."The election of Morales, a Bolivian coca-farmers' leader, has drawn close US attention due to his past opposition to coca eradication efforts and his ties to leftist leaders Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Fidel Castro of Cuba."Unilateral decisions on coca production are not welcomed," the EU's Gallach said. "Any decision on this issue must be respectful of UN conventions."Bolivia, the world's No. 3 coca grower after Colombia and Peru, may have produced up to 118 tons of cocaine in 2004, up 35% from 2003, according to the UN World Drug Report. Morales has said he would study expanding the area where coca can be legally grown.
