Morales: Bolivia needs "partners, not masters"
Fri Jan 6, 2006
By Brian Rohan
PARIS (Reuters) - Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales said on Friday his country had been saddled with unconstitutional corporate contracts and that it needed business partners not masters.
Morales, whose election campaign promised to nationalize Bolivia's natural gas industry, has unnerved some foreign investors by accusing unnamed international companies of tax evasion and resource smuggling.
Firms that came to Bolivia -- South America's poorest economy, but also home to the continent's second-largest natural gas reserves -- must respect its laws, he said.
"Our country's worst enemy is corruption," Morales told a news conference in Paris, where he stopped on the second leg of a 10-nation tour after his election win last month.
"Today in my country, no contract is constitutional. Any contract with companies, any agreement with the government, both bi-lateral and multi-lateral, must be ratified in parliament. Over 70 contracts haven't been ratified by parliament," he said.
"We need partners, not masters," added the left-leaning former coca farmer, who was the first ethnic Indian to win the Bolivian presidency.
Morales' future vice president, Alvaro Garcia, said on Thursday the president-elect would raise the price of natural gas sold to neighboring Argentina to bring it in line with regional market prices.
Morales vowed to continue exporting Bolivia's natural gas, despite his tough talk on ownership of the industry.
"The new economic system for the new Bolivia should be based on natural resources," he said, adding that his incoming government planned to carry out reforms democratically and without expropriations.
He said his administration would emphasize dialogue rather than radical solutions to address the issue.
Bolivia would ask the Organization of American States to intervene as an arbitrator to help with the accurate application of its laws, said Morales, who is due to take office on January 22.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, on Thursday urged Morales not to make sudden changes to Bolivia's laws if the country wanted to attract foreign investment.
Morales was due to meet French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said discussions with Morales would address the situation of French investors in Bolivia.
"We have taken note of a number of things Mr. Morales has said," Mattei told a regular media briefing. "We simply want to remind him of the importance of having legal stability, a certain legal security for the investors."
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