MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bolivia’s Morales nationalizes zinc and tin mines licensed to Swiss group
Minister of the Presidency, Juan Ramon Quintana, making the announcement Bolivia announced on Sunday the nationalization of the mining company Colquiri to the west of the country and which belongs to the Swiss group Glencore. The announcement by Minister of the Presidency, Juan Ramon Quintana, followed a meeting with the mining unions and the villages from Colquiri region.
“The government has decided to nationalize Colquiri which is a private company that belongs to Sinchi Wayra, a subsidiary from the mining group Glencore”, said Quintana.
The administration of President Evo Morales had already seized two metal foundries from Glencore in 2007 and 2010.
The Swiss company operates through Sinchi Wayra which controls Colquiri for the exploitation of zinc and tin with 400 miners.
The Bolivian government said that nationalization will not include areas in the region licensed to Cooperative February 26, although if its members so wish, the government can take care in a concerted way the control of the operations.
The leaders from the National Federation of Miners’ cooperatives, an influential group in the government of President Morales and with a strong capacity to take to the streets rejected the idea of nationalizing their sector and warned they will proceed to blockade roads in the country
Albino García one of the leaders of the cooperatives said that if the government moves into their sector they will respond with a national conflict.
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Read all commentsAnd this is one of the reasons why most of South America is still stuck in the dark ages.
Jun 11th, 2012 - 06:35 am 0How to ruin your economy; lesson one steal from foreign investors.
Venezuela the role model of corrupt and failed economies now mimicked by Argentina with Bolivia close behind!
Xect, talk about these specific countries, as NOT all south american countries act like this. We wouldn't consider putting all European countries on the same level as the belorussian dictatorship or the lazy greek corruption pot.
Jun 11th, 2012 - 09:10 am 0Apologies you are correct, I will talk about specific countries like the ones I mentioned in the future.
Jun 11th, 2012 - 10:08 am 0Xect
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