Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 24 October 1969
Bolivia: Patria o Gulf
Bolivia faces grave problems after the nationalization of the US owned Bolivian Gulf Oil company.
Pushed on by a groundswell of popular exasperation at Bolivia's condition, and of antipathy towards features of the US involvement in Bolivia, the government of General Alfredo Ovando Candia last Friday nationalized the properties of the Bolivian Gulf Oil Company which exploits the rich deposits of oil and natural gas in the southeastern department of Santa Cruz. It was perhaps the only way the government could capture and hold any popular support. Extremists in Cochabamba celebrated the event by burning down the local office of the US economic mission.
General Ovando's decision to change his mind about the US oil company came after he had felt the wind of resentment raised by his treatment of Juan Lechin Oquendo, the miners' leader, who was bundled out of the country to Chile in an airforce jet on Thursday last. Though Lechin is not perhaps the popular firebrand he once was, his expulsion by the military elements in the cabinet -- reportedly without consultation with the civilian ministers and in direct contradiction of assurances given him -- provoked accusations of dictatorship, protests from workers and students and malaise among the nationalists in the government. While Lechin's fate would not have provoked an immediate split in the government it did make the civilian nationalists in the cabinet demand from the President some token of his true nationalist feeling, and the obvious touchstone was the treatment to be given to the US company which controlled most of the oil supplies of the country.
The decision to nationalize was immediately followed by official statements aimed at getting the last ounce of popularity and public support for the government for its action. At the ministry of information Alberto Bailey Gutierrez, one of the leading journalists in the country, former editor of the main La Paz dialy Presencia and former Jesuit seminarian, announced a newspaper campaign whose theme was Patria o Gulf and whose message was that 'The time of shame is over for the Bolivian people'. In a commentary on the nationalization Bailey stated that the government would not be swayed from its path by the threat of any cutoff of US aid through the application of the so-called Hickenlooper amendment as was threatened with the Peruvian nationalization of the International Petroleum Company. 'The Bolivian attitude', he said, 'is no more than the clear expression of the repudiation of colonialism by Latin America'.
The armed forces who have for the past 2 1/2 years been working in close and successful daily liaison with the US anti-guerrilla forces, came to share their portion of anti-imperialist credit. General Juan Jose Torrez, head of the armed forces, claimed that the army was the 'iron arm' of the revolution ready to put an end to 'foreign pressures in the service of well-known strategic interests'. He added, echoing the feelings of many Bolivians, 'we are tired of being simple exporters of raw materials and cheap labour.' It was left to Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, the minister of mines and petroleum, to spell out in detail how the nationalization of Bolivian Gulf would be handled. For the gas and petroleum Bolivian Gulf would not be paid 'a centavo' in indemnity, 'because both resources belong to our people'. Nor would the investments made by the company be recompensed, 'since we are not interested in the expenses they incurred.' Fixed assets such as machinery, pumps, injection plants, premises and vehicles would be paid for after there had been a full investigation of the payment by Gulf of royalties and a check of 'possible evasions'. Were the World Bank to hold up the remaining half of the 45 million dollars due for the Santa Cruz -- Yacuiba pipeline now being constructed by YABOG to convey natural gas to markets in Argentina, Quiroga threatened an action at the international court of justice. Though the state had taken over Gulf's share in the company, whose other shareholder was YPFB, the state oil company, YABOG was being kept as a separate entity so that it could continue to qualify for the credit.
On Monday before a delirious crowd of Indians, students, miners and workers gathered before the Palacio Quemado in La Paz Ovando expatiated about the Day of National Dignity. He was flanked by Irineo Pimentel, the miners' leader who had been subject to constant harassment since the fall in 1964 of the MNR government of Paz Estenssoro, and Orlando Capriles, a union leader, as well as Adolfo Quiroga Bonadona, a student leader who has suffered similar inconveniences. His fiery phrases were eagerly taken up by the multitude and he finished with words similar in tone to those employed in more tropical latitudes: 'Viva Bolivia, Adelante Venceremos'. Foreign observers were left marvelling at the fact that the soldier who collaborated so effectively with the US in the elimination of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara and who was responsible for a number of bloodsoaked encounters with the tin miners could be arousing such popular enthusiasm. There were also the comparisons with General Velasco in Peru.
IT is in a comparison with Velasco that Ovando's actions become more explicable. The Peruvian, it is generally agreed, had to awaken a sense of nationalism in a country which had traditionally been passive towards foreign investment and foreign influence on the country's affairs. Since the takeover of the IPC's La Brea and Parinas installations and the claim for 691 million dollars from the US oil company, the Peruvian generals have led their fellow citizens into a series of measures, agrarian reform, soon banking reform and general attack on privilege, of which the country as a whole had, at least at first, little expressed desire. The Bolivian tradition for the last 30 years, and especially since the MNR revolution of 1952, has been different and much less passive. Agrarian reform, and emancipation of the Indian, the abolition of the privileges of the wealthiest families, state control of the heights of the economy (that is, the tin mines) have all been the common currency of Bolivian politics for decades. The average Bolivian is a much more highly politicized being than the average Peruvian, and debate has ranged round the degree to which revolutionary reforms have been or should be carried out. Many nationalists in all strata of society have felt that the original aims of the 1952 revolution have been woefully betrayed and it is these elements in political life who are now exerting pressure on Ovando. While Velasco is pulling his country after him Ovando is running hard to keep the leadership from politicians who threaten to out-distance him.
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