Bolivia edges close to energy takeover

Bolivian President Evo Morales is moving his country closer to nationalizing South America’s second-largest natural gas reserves and reviving a state-owned petroleum company that now amounts to little more than a collection of bureaucrats and decrepit gas stations…

“Some multinationals already have conspiracies,” Morales said Monday in one of his harshest speeches since taking office two weeks ago. He said Bolivia’s military leaders are preparing a response, and he pledged to bring government control over all levels of oil and gas exploitation…

Analysts believe Morales will try to model Bolivia’s energy industry after Venezuela’s, where most multinational oil companies are managing to live under a system dominated by President Hugo Chavez’s socialist government.

Houston Chronicle