Bolivian protesters shut down pipeline

[struggle4progress]

Staff and agencies
03 February, 2007

By CARLOS VALDEZ, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 3 minutes ago

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Protesters forced the shutdown of a natural gas pipeline serving several of Bolivia‘s largest cities to demand that President Evo Morales broaden his petroleum nationalization and expand state energy company operations in southern Bolivia.

The pipeline serves La Paz and the eastern city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia‘s two largest cities, but the shutdown had not affected supplies in either city, Garcia said ...

Since Monday, the protesters have blockaded the main highway outside Camiri to demand that Bolivian state energy company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, or YPFB, build a local headquarters in their town.

Saying that nationalization has not gone far enough, the demonstrators also have demanded that Morales seize two Bolivian oil refineries operated by Brazilian state energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras — a move his government announced last September but quickly aborted in the face of fierce international criticism ...

http://www.localnewswatch.com/benton/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=54745

[Kagemusha]

1. Well, this is one potential problem of electing a leftist...

Since his sympathies are with the protestors, protestors get it in their heads they can walk all over him and force the government to go much further than it wants to by unrestrained direct action. Or at least, that's the continual fear of corporations. If once in a blue moon such concerns are justified by reality, one would hope that the government can keep things stable enough and finds compromises people (of multiple walks of life) can live with. ...One would hope.

[Missy M]

2. So you think it's a problem when an elected official......

does something the people who elected him/her want?

[Kagemusha]

3. Only if they decide it's not enough and try to bring cities to their knees

Then it's a bit of a problem.

By itself, no...