Nation & World News
Bolivians to protest gas export
route in effort to oust leaders
Student, labor and leftist
groups will protest in Bolivia
today over proposed gas
exportation through Chile
By Tyler Bridges
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Leftist unions,
university students and farm labor In
dians will attempt to shut down Bo
livia Monday by rallying opposition
to the government's desire to export
huge gas reserves through the coun
try's hated enemy, Chile.
They ultimately hope to use the gas
controversy to topple the government
of President Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada, who has a tenuous hold
on power.
The debate over whether the gas
will travel through Chile has con
vulsed La Paz and its environs over
the past 10 days, with opponents
blocking highways into the capital
and provoking one confrontation that
left six dead.
If Sanchez de Lozada chooses the
route through Chile — he has said he
will decide by December — "the gov
ernment could fall," Bolivian politi
cal analyst Carlos Torranzo said. "Gas
, has become a catalyst for all of
the grievances."
The stakes are so large because gov
ernment officials and private analysts
say exporting Bolivia's huge gas re
serves through Chile is the only feasi
ble route for a $5 billion project that
they say offers the best hope for re
ducing hunger and creating jobs in
this impoverished nation.
But opponents — Marxist workers
and students, anti-government farm
labor Indians and anti-free traders —
say the gas must not be exported
through Chile, which is hated for hav
ing annexed Bolivia's only access to
the ocean after an 1879 battle be
tween the two countries.
Worsening matters, the gas would
be sent through the northern Chilean
port of Patillos, which once belonged
to Bolivia.
• r
"Chile is our enemy," Leonardo
Huayta, who owns a tiny food store
outside of La Paz, said. "We'll fight
to the death that it not go
through Chile."
Bolivians have been unable to let
go of their antagonism of Chile be
cause losing their access coastline was
probably the biggest defeat ever suf
fered in a country that has enjoyed
few victories.
Schools teach children that a cow
ardly Chile stole Bolivia's coastline,
although most historians blame the
inept general running the country at
the time.
Ever since, military recruits have
taken an oath to defend the country
with the phrase, "Long Live Bolivia!
Death to Chile!"
Exacerbating the debate is Bolivia's
history of being exploited by foreign
ers, beginning with Spanish coloniz
ers in the 17th century sending home
the riches of the Potosi silver mines.
That the gas reserves exist in a part
of Bolivia known as the Chaco hasn't
helped the government's position.
A 1932-35 war against Paraguay for
control of the Chaco killed 60,000
Bolivians, most of whom were Indi
ans from the highlands.
"Our fathers and grandfathers
died to protect that land," Felipe
Quispe, an Aymara Indian and
member of Congress who is one of
the government's two main oppo
nents, said in an interview. "The gas
belongs to Bolivia."
Quispe spoke Saturday following a
two-hour session where 500 Indians
in the midst of an anti-government
hunger strike rallied against the gov
ernment while three government offi
cials stoicly sat on a stage taking it in.
Tensions ran so high that three
Chilean journalists had to be hustled
out of the auditorium before farm la
borers attacked them.
"We should use the gas to industri
alize Bolivia," Quispe said in the in
terview. "Once the country is industri
alized, we can sell it abroad."
Linder the plan awaiting govern
ment approval, Bolivia's gas would be
sent via Mexico to California, which
is another sore spot among oppo
nents, who continue to nurse virulent
anti-American feelings.
The gas debate comes at a time of
rising anti-govemment feelings. Riots
in February left 30 dead and forced
Sanchez de Lozada to flee the presi
dential palace for his safety.
After 15 years of modest growth,
Bolivia's economy has been stagnant
for the past four years after promises
that privatizing state companies dur
ing the 1990s would mean better lives
for the poor. The gap between the
haves and the have-nots seems to be
widening.
"The people don't see results," Al
varo Garcia, a sociologist who serves
as an intellectual theorist for the left,
said. "There's no work, there's no
money, there are no jobs and there's
no money coming in. There's enor
mous discontent."
Three foreign companies — British
Gas, Repsol-YPF of Spain and Pan
American Energy — own the gas re
serves and would build oil pipelines
and the plant in Chile where the gas
would be liquefied. Tankers would
ship the liquid gas to a regasification
plant in northwest Mexico. From
there, it would be sent to California
energy producers.
Shipping the gas from Bolivia to a
port in Peru has been suggested as a
politically palatable alternative to
Chile. But it would increase the pro
ject's cost by $ 1 billion and is thus un
feasible economically, officials from
the oil companies have said.
Bolivian officials have said that
once the pipeline is fully functional in
2008, exports would nearly double,
and the government would receive an
additional $300 million a year.
"If we don't do this, Bolivia will re
main a poor country," luan Cariaga, a
former finance minister who is a pri
vate business consultant, said.
(c) 2003, The Miami Herald. Distributed
by Knight Ridder/Tribune information
Services.
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