Bolivia continues nationalization policy.

AutorGaudin, Andres

In mid-February, the Bolivian government authorized a new nationalization, continuing the process that President Evo Morales has claimed is necessary and indispensable since he headed the organized coca growers long before becoming president. This time it was the turn of SABSA, which in 1997 had been given a 25-year contract to manage the country's 37 airports. SABSA is wholly owned by TBI, the company acquired in 2005 by Spanish-owned Abertis and AENA.

What at first glance might seem a minor matter--the nationalization of a company in a sector that is relatively insignificant, given the volume of international and domestic air traffic in a poor country--became, however, proof of the government's decision to leave no sector without a strong state presence and, at the same time, ratify the essence of a model that is gradually putting the country's economy on a sound footing.

Morales says that the decision was made long before Feb. 18, the day it was announced, but was delayed "for diplomatic reasons" that he did not explain. He said only that SABSA had failed to make promised investments. Between 1997 and 2011, it should have spent US$55 million on various projects but had spent only US$6 million. When he gave those figures, the president set diplomacy aside to say that "this was robbery, looting, because in that period SABSA's profits amounted to 2,164% of what it paid for the airport concession."

The government says that its nationalization policy, as part of careful macroeconomic management, explains the country's high growth rates, record level of hard-currency reserves, and improvements in poverty and inequality indices and is among the factors that have enabled Morales to form an urban-rural social coalition that has gradually dismantled the opposition of the rich, secessionist eastern region of the country (NotiSur, May 8, 2009, and Dec. 7, 2012).

Nationalizations boost economic figures

The numbers speak for themselves. Under Morales' leadership, GDP has more than doubled (from US$11.5 billion to US$24.6 billion), and per capita GDP went from US$1,200 to US$2,200. By the end of 2012, international reserves had reached a record US$13 billion, a testament to the fiscal prudence of Economy Minister Luis Arce Catacora.

Inflation was 4.54% in 2012, and the Banco Central projects a rate of 4.8% this year, the lowest in South America. Between 2005 and 2010, the latest year for which reliable figures are available, poverty levels fell from...

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