La Paz, Bolivia – President Evo Morales’ socialist government on Thursday called on Bolivians to go “into the streets” to defend the nationalization of the nation’s fossil-fuel resources from the alleged “counter-revolutionary” actions of opposition parties.
“I’m making a call to the Bolivian people, to the social movements. Let’s be calm, the (nationalization) decree is grounded in the constitution, but we’re also going to defend it in the streets,” Energy Minister Andres Soliz Rada said Thursday.
Soliz issued the call at the end of an official function organized by senators from the ruling Movement Toward Socialism party to express their support for minister, who on Wednesday was the target of a censure motion adopted by the opposition conservative Podemos party, which holds a plurality in Bolivia’s upper chamber.
The energy minister offered to step down from his post Wednesday evening, but the president – who hailed Soliz’s job performance and criticized the opposition senators for censuring him – refused to accept his resignation.
The censure motion was adopted by 13 conservative and centrist senators who justified the measure by pointing to alleged acts of corruption by top executives at state-owned oil company YPFB.
Podemos has also filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court, claiming that the nationalization decree is unconstitutional because it was not approved through the legislative process.
Morales signed a decree May 1 nationalizing and giving the state “absolute control” over Bolivia’s huge reserves of natural gas and smaller ones of oil.
Under the terms of the decree, foreign energy firms operating in Bolivia had to deliver all their production to YPFB for distribution and processing.
The foreign companies were given six months to adjust their existing operating contracts or leave the country.
The executive order was authorized by a referendum on natural gas held in 2004, in which a majority of Bolivians expressed their desire for the government to recover state control over the country’s hydrocarbons resources.
“The traitors who are demanding the nationalization decree be declared unconstitutional have no legal basis, not legal, nor political and least of all ethical,” Soliz said.
While Soliz was meeting with the senators, YPFB President Jorge Alvarado was being questioned by the lower house’s economic development committee about allegations the company violated Morales’ decree by signing a contract with an intermediary to export crude to Brazil.
After several days of silence, Alvarado denied the accusation during questioning.
The Andean nation has an estimated 48 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, giving it the second-largest reserves in South America after Venezuela.
