Morales: China will build Bolivia a satellite

[Judi Lynn]

Morales: China will build Bolivia a satellite
The Associated Press , La Paz
Fri, 09/25/2009 7:38 AM

Bolivian leader Evo Morales says he got a surprising promise from China's president at the U.N. General Assembly this week: China will build and launch Bolivia's first satellite.

Morales says the $300 million satellite to which Hu Jintao committed will be used to improve communications with remote areas of this Andean nation.

He says the satellite, which will take up to three years to build, is to be named for Tupac Katari, an Indian leader killed during a revolt against Spanish rule.

Morales told reporters Thursday that he found Hu and other Chinese officials eager to deepen cooperation with Bolivia. He accompanied Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to China a year ago for the launch of a satellite built for Venezuela.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/25/morales-china-will-build-bolivia-a-satellite.html

[Braulio]

1. Bolivia will buy $300 million Chinese Satellite

It will be used to improve communications with remote areas of the andean nation. It's not known if Bolivia's government studied whether it made sense to use its limited resources purchasing a communications satellite, nor whether this deal meets transparency guidelines which require that potential builders bid on the job. Such one-of deals, negotiated rather than offered via a tender, are being used by Venezuela as well. Given the influence the Venezuelans have over the Bolivian government, it's not surprising to see Morales following their (somewhat murky) practices.

[Judi Lynn]

2. DU'ers have been well informed on Bolivia for years. We follow it together.

You're not going to make any converts here.

Bolivia has NEVER done this well as a nation.

[Braulio]

4. Poor Bolivians

Bolivia is the poorest nation in Latin America. In recent years, it did quite well due to the increase in commodity prices. However, the sharp US-induced economic recession has hurt, and economic performance this year is much worse than last year's. This is reflected in a popularity drop for Morales, from 62 to 47 % positive rating. Future prospects don't look particularly bright, because private investment is unlikely to flow to a country with an erratic government style.

One negative issue for Bolivia was Morales' semi-nationalization of the gas industry, and his hard nosed bargaining with the Brazilians (who consume a large portion of Bolivia's gas exports. The Brazilians, tired of Morales' hardball (apparently Morales was being advised by PDVSA "experts" sent by the Venezuelans), went ahead and built LNG import terminals, and pushed hard to develop their own gas. This makes prospects for Bolivian gas exports look fairly grim - and reduces their exports.

One positive issue is the boon in lithium oxide batteries for electric vehicles - because Bolivia is the Saudi Arabia of lithium. The industry there is quite under-developed, the question is, will Bolivia be reasonable and deal with multinational mining companies to extract the lithium? or will he go Chavez route and try to create hybrid JVs with Bolivian corporate controls? If so, it's doubtful the lithium industry will develop as a significant factor in the economy.

[Judi Lynn]

5. They'll do fine without assholes sticking their filthy noses into their business. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

6. Morales has DOUBLED Bolivia's gas revenues, and President Sarkozy of France was just there

last week negotiating for a lithium contract and offering social programs and technology transfers as inducements. I'd say Morales has investors coming to him and to Bolivia, rather than the other way around. Now they're getting a satellite from China, to solve their chronic, long term communications problems in the extremely difficult terrain of the Andes mountains and other regions. But that's "President Moonbeam" to the small-minded and the mean-spirited, who, instead of hailing Morales for finally solving this problem, to help bring Bolivia into the 21st century, are just oh so concerned about Bolivia's "poor." Tut-tut.

And their agenda in all this tut-tutting is so very transparent.

If Venezuela's PDVSA was advising Morales and his government on the gas contracts, they were getting very good advice, because the Chavez government negotiated their oil contracts several times, each time improving the revenues for Venezuela's bootstrapping programs (education, health care, grants and loans to small business, etc.). The previous, rightwing governments were giving the oil away, in 10/90 deals favoring the multinationals, and of course skimming off the top for themselves and their rich elite, while utterly neglecting their country and their poor countrymen. "Fuck the poor" was their negotiating position. The Chavez government's latest negotiating got a 60/40 split favoring Venezuela. And only Exxon Mobil walked out (and went into First World courts to try to seize $12 billion in Venezuela's assets--and lost in court; jerks--literally trying to steal food out of the mouths of children, and books out of their hands!). But no one else walked out. France's Total, Norway's, Statoil, British BP and others agreed, because they want access to the "black gold" by other means than slaughtering a hundred thousand innocent people, and torturing thousands and displacing millions. Venezuelans thus gained the larger share of profits from their own resources. Now THAT is bargaining in the public interest!

And, gee, that's WHY Morales was able to DOUBLE the gas revenues--because he drove a hard bargain! If the Chavistas bolstered him in that effort, they deserve kudos. But not according to those with an anti-democratic, anti-leftist, anti-people, anti-Chavez agenda. No, to them it looks, oh, uppity.

South Americans are making their own deals now, and are refusing to take dictation from the bankrupt USA and its criminal banksters and war profiteers. And they're doing very well, indeed. Bolivia has never, ever, in its entire history, had a better government than it does now. It has a leader who has become a hard bargainer with multinationals. It is using the DOUBLED gas revenues for pensions for the elderly, education, and other essential and humane development. It is now networked throughout South America with other similarly social justice-minded and independence-minded leaders--including the presidents of Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador and other countries, who instantly backed up Morales when the Bushwhacks tried to overthrow him and Bolivian democracy in September 2008, with a white separatist insurrection; with Brazil and Argentina using their economic clout, to force the murdering insurrectionists to back down, Chile leading the political fight, Chile also settling a long dispute by giving Bolivia access to the Pacific, and Brazil and Venezuela ponying up the funds to build a new highway from Brazil's Atlantic coast across South America to the Pacific, through Bolivia, which will make Bolivia a major trade route.

While the corrupt Bushwhack "free traders" in Peru use US "war on drugs" money to shoot and kill indians protesting the rape of the Amazon by multinationals, and while that other US ally, Colombia, slaughters 25 union leaders this year alone (thousands over the last decade), and yet another mass grave is discovered there, filled with tortured, dead peasant farmers, the rest of South America has pulled together to create a better future for all, with new institutions like Venezuela's brainchild, the Bank of the South, and UNASUR, the South American "common market."

This is what rightwingers don't understand: cooperation, mutual benefit, and a passion for social justice at long last. They are stuck in the ego-mode of that get-filthy-rich-and-to-hell-with-everybody-else bunch of criminals on Wall Street. They think an indian like Morales should be kowtowing to that ilk--begging for their empty, worthless, just-printed investment dollars. Democracy and its creative energies--the energy that really makes the world go around--is irrelevant to them. They do not understand what enterprise is. It's sad, because we once had a lot of that kind of energy here--the energy of a people inspired by democracy. Now it's just doom and gloom from them, about any new thought. A satellite for Bolivia! What do those backward peasants need a satellite for?

:puke:

[Downwinder]

7. That should supply them broad band access to rural areas.

Something a so called developed country does not have.

[Braulio]

8. Setting the record straight

I did some research regarding this topic, and here's what I found:

Bolivia did indeed raise its share of natural gas sales income, as well as increase taxes on private oil companies. They also raised the price of gas being exported to Brazil. A large portion of the natural gas reserves were found by private companies, which were drawn into Bolivia as a result of a 1996 privatization law. In other words, the bulk of the gas being produced is the result of investments made by multinationals. As a result of the change from the old system to the new system (which is in part copied from Venezuela's), income went up, but investment essentially dried up. The lack of investment is attributable to the poor terms offered by the new regime. At the same time, the Brazilians, seeing the price of Bolivian gas raised so much, began to build infrastructure for LNG imports from elsewhere (mostly Africa and Trinidad and Tobago), as well as develop their own indigenous gas resources. Experts thus project that Bolivia's pricing power will evaporate in the mid-term, and their exports will drop, as Brazil diversifies its natural gas supply. It's hard to tell without having accurate cash flows whether Bolivia's essentially killing off investment and turning the Brazilians away was a good move.

Venezuela moved its oil industry from a hybrid system to a new Joint Venture structure (which seems to have been partially copied from a model used by Cuba). The old system used private industry as a service provider, but the oil was owned by PDVSA, which paid a fee to the companies according to a complex formula. This formula indeed gave the foreign investors a significant share of revenue, however, the oil was being produced as a result of investments made by said investors, and the overall rate of return for investments made by private companies was below the return achieved in other countries. The new JV structure does indeed give PDVSA 60 % of the shares in new Joint Venture companies, with 40 % of the shares going to the private investor.

At least FOUR companies walked out during the transitions from old contracts to new contracts: ENI, Total, Conoco-Phillips, and ExxonMobil. Total walked out of one contract, and chose to stay in a second contract producing heavy oil. ENI refused to change its service contract to JV terms. Both companies settled out of court. Conoco-Phillips AND Exxon-Mobil are engaged in legal proceedings against PDVSA, and both feel they have a good chance of winning their respective cases. Exxon Mobil tried to freeze all PDVSA assets around the world, so that, when they win their case, they can take over PDVSA properties outside Venezuela. Venezuela, however, was able to unfreeze its assets by showing the court it didn't have plans to sell its properties, and therefore if ExxonMobil won the assets would still be there to be taken over.

OPEC sources report Venezuela's oil production is dropping considerably. This is a result of the change from the old structure to the new structure, and PDVSA's politization by Chavez (PDVSA management is distracted because PDVSA is now used to run minimarkets, missions to teach kids how to read, and run a whole series of programs on behalf of the government party, the PSUV). As of mid 2009, there's no indication that PDVSA is actually able to bring in significant foreign investment, largely due to wariness on the part of private investors. This also applies to the national oil companies from Russia, China, Iran, and others, who Chavez has touted as being large potential investors, but who seem to spend a lot of time talking and preparing studies, but thus far don't invest.

The question isn't whether "a satellite for Bolivia" is good or bad. The question is whether the Chinese sale, reportedly $300 million will be paid by Bolivia for the satellite, was competitive. Most governments have companies bid in transparent tenders for such sales. There was nothing in the information I've seen which reports Bolivian intent to purchase a communications satellite. So the question is, is that indeed the best move for Bolivia? How can they tell if they don't seek bids from other suppliers, so they can be sure that indeed the Chinese price is the best price around?

Regarding the rest of your comments, they're fairly meaningless drivel. Latin American countries have indeed been led by people who didn't care much for the poor. They're usually corrupt - all of them - and they're usually mismanaged - all of them. This doesn't have much to do with the issue I wanted to point out, that purchasing a $300 million piece of equipment should be something that's looked at very carefully, and then a tender must be held to make sure the price to be paid is indeed the best price.

[Judi Lynn]

9. It's their country, they have their own experts, they have no need to consult message board posters.

Why would you imagine we are tempted to think you know better than Bolivia's President?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Bolivia wants its terrorists back! Better start packing, trolls!

From an earlier thread in the D.U. Latin America forum:

Friday, 05 June 2009
Bolivia wants terror backers from US

Bolivia: The government of Bolivian President Evo Morales will urge that the US repatriate Bolivian citizens accused of funding a terrorist cell neutralized in April, an official source confirmed Wednesday. Minister of the Presidency Juan Ramon Quintana said that in the coming days, he will head a delegation to the US to deal with that request at the Department of Justice.

The Public Ministry indicated that Hugo Acha, Alejandro Melgar, and Luis Hurtado Vaca, identified as members of the group funding the extremists led by Bolivian-Croatian Eduardo Rozsa Flores, fled to the United States.

Attorney Marcelo Sosa informed that the information found in electronic equipment allowed to confirm the names of some of the people involved.

He also mentioned retired Generals Lucio Anez and Gary Prado, and the president of the Council for Dues Administration, Juan Carlos Velarde.

More:
http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/06/05/wld05.asp