Bolivia Border Reopens; Mayors Accept EBX Departure, Paper Says

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivia Border Reopens; Mayors Accept EBX Departure, Paper Says

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Bolivia's border with Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state reopened yesterday after community leaders agreed to accept the Bolivian government's expulsion of EBX, a Brazilian mining and steel company, El Deber reported.

The protesters, led by mayors of Puerto Suarez, the largest Bolivian town on Brazil's border, and nearby communities, ended the nine-day closure in exchange for a promise of $5 million in job-creation aid from the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the daily newspaper, published in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, reported.

The protests began after Morales expelled EBX, controlled by Rio de Janeiro mining investor Eike Batista, for allegedly failing to get proper environmental permits to operate two pig- iron blast furnaces in Puerto Suarez, El Deber said. The protesters said the expulsion would cost thousands of jobs.

The government, which is taking over petroleum and other natural-resource assets is considering whether or not to let Batista carry out his promise to remove the $65 million iron mill from Bolivia and move it to Brazil, the newspaper reported.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=a_R017Br0r9Q&refer=latin_america

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History Helps Explain Bolivia's New Boldness

By JUAN FORERO
Published: May 7, 2006
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia

SINCE well before the last century began, Bolivia has fought repeatedly with its neighbors over the riches on and under its soil.

So far, it has lost every time.

Once more than three times the size of Texas, half of the land Bolivia once held is now gone, along with a long Pacific coastline and, some have said, the country's dignity.

Even lowly Paraguay, also landlocked and impoverished, took its share — in a three-year war that ended in 1935, when Bolivia had the edge in manpower and equipment, and a German World War I veteran, Gen. Hans Kundt, to lead its forces.

That history of humiliation was very much on Bolivians' minds last week when their president nationalized the country's natural gas fields, and in doing so picked a fight with the giant next door, Brazil.
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Mr. Morales's decree evoked the humiliations, noting that Bolivians have shed their blood for the "right so that our hydrocarbon riches return to the hands of the nation, for the benefits of the country."

"In this decree," said Nelson Cabrera, the operations chief for the state energy company, "is the hope of the people."
(snip/)http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/weekinreview/07forero.html