Morales seizes control of Swiss tin smelter
By Hal Weitzman in Lima
Published: February 9 2007 20:03 | Last updated: February 9 2007 20:03
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales on Friday signalled his determination to pursue his nationalisation agenda by issuing a decree to take back into state hands a tin smelter owned by a Swiss company.
“Vinto will pass into the hands of the Bolivian state,” said Mr Morales, who made the announcement in Oruro flanked by his vice-president and other cabinet members.
Glencore, a Swiss commodity trading house, bought the Vinto tin smelter in 2005 as part of its $100m (€77m, £51m) purchase of tin and zinc producer Compania Minera del Sur from Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, the former Bolivian president who was forced from office in 2003 and fled to the US. Mr Sánchez de Lozada’s government originally privatised the smelter in 1996.
“We are fulfilling the mandate that the Bolivian people have given us, which is to take back the natural resources of this land, its privatised industries that were auctioned off to transnational companies,” said Mr Morales.
“It is time to industrialise all the natural resources that were sold off by successive governments that followed neo-liberal policies.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d3501f78-b877-11db-be2e-0000779e2340.htmlYou GO Dude!
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