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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, March 24th 2025 - 03:05 UTC

Tag: Bolivia

  • Saturday, March 15th 2025 - 09:44 UTC

    Bolivian President admits inability to cope with imported fuel demand

    “We no longer have the capacity to be able to fully respond to the demand for that amount of fuel,” Arce reckoned

    Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora admitted Friday that his country imported 90% of the fuel it consumed at a cost of around US$ 3 billion annually, a significant adjustment from US$ 1.5 billion in 2019. Given the rise in smuggling and the scarcity of hard foreign currency, the crisis seems to have entered some loop. Reducing public sector vehicle use and prioritizing fuel for essential services may not be enough to meet national fuel demand. “What country is going to put up with this?” he wondered.

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  • Friday, March 14th 2025 - 13:24 UTC

    UN: Bolivia loses voting rights over unpaid membership dues

    Pary stressed that Bolivia has had an active role within the UN

    Former Foreign Minister Diego Pary (2018-19), who resigned as Bolivia's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) last year, has said that his country has lost its voting rights within the global organization due to unpaid membership dues for the 2024-2025 term, amounting roughly to US$ 780,000.

  • Thursday, March 13th 2025 - 10:38 UTC

    Bolivian gov't announces measures to tackle fuel shortages

    Virtual schooling is encouraged in a move to reduce the need for transport amid fuel shortages

    Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora announced Wednesday in a broadcast message a set of ten measures adopted by his government to tackle the fuel shortage affecting his country.

  • Wednesday, March 12th 2025 - 10:27 UTC

    Bolivia's fuel shortage crisis deepens

    Bolivia has trouble importing fuel, which in turn brings losses to the agricultural industry in times of harvest

    The Bolivian department of Santa Cruz is experiencing a crisis caused by a severe diesel shortage, which has led to blockades and threats of strikes. Farmers in Concepción and Yapacaní have blocked key highways connecting Santa Cruz with other regions, protesting the lack of fuel that threatens their summer harvest of crops like soybeans, corn, and rice. These blockades have disrupted trade routes and prompted warnings of further protests in other towns like San Carlos and Portachuelo.

  • Thursday, February 20th 2025 - 18:03 UTC

    Bolivian official warns against disinformation regarding lithium contracts

    “There is disinformation with political intentions, without any doubt,” Alcón argued

    Bolivia's Vice Minister of Communication Gabriela Alcón said this week that spreading misinformation about lithium contracts would result in delays to the mineral's industrialization in her country. She also underlined the importance of transparent communication about the documents currently being negotiated, which are beneficial for the state and involve a small portion of the nation's salt flats. Contracts with Russia's Uranium One Group and China's CBC from Hong Kong are expected to yield significant amounts of lithium carbonate, with investments totaling over US$ 2 billion.

  • Wednesday, February 12th 2025 - 09:48 UTC

    Bolivia's lithium company says deal with Chinese partners is risk-free

    The Chinese company has three years to start collecting top-quality lithium or leave Bolivia with no compensation after investing over US$ 1 billion

    Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) Legal Manager Pablo Nina warned Tuesday that the Chinese company Hong Kong CBC has three years to extract a mineral with 99.5% purity and 80% recovery in the raw material processing or face the dismantling of its two battery-grade lithium carbonate production plants in the Uyuni salt flat and leave the country.

  • Tuesday, February 4th 2025 - 13:25 UTC

    IMF tips inaccurate, Bolivia says

    The Bolivian Government is taking care of the economy, Montenegro claimed

    The Government of Bolivia stressed Monday that the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) devaluation and fiscal adjustment proposals were missing the target because they hinged on old data.

  • Tuesday, January 28th 2025 - 10:55 UTC

    Argentina to build fence along Bolivian border

    Aguas Blancas is known to be particularly porous to uncontrolled traffic from Bolivia

    Authorities in the Argentine province of Salta called for tenders to build a “perimeter fence” 200 meters long and 2.5 meters high on the border with Bolivia along the Bermejo River between the Aguas Blancas bus terminal and the immigration checkpoint, in a move to keep irregular aliens and drugs from entering the country.

  • Monday, January 27th 2025 - 21:42 UTC

    Investigation launched into attack against Venezuela's Embassy in La Paz

    Sosa explained that shots had been fired against the diplomatic mission on Sunday

    Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa said her country's government had launched an investigation into the attack against Venezuela's Embassy in La Paz. “From the Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia we strongly repudiate these vandalism acts that violate the rights and immunities of Venezuelan diplomats,” she stressed in a statement published on social media.

  • Saturday, January 25th 2025 - 10:00 UTC

    Fitch downgrades Bolivia's credit rating

    Fitch's pessimistic projections generate unnecessary uncertainty, Bolivian authorities argued

    The international agency Fitch Ratings Friday downgraded Bolivia's status to “CCC-” and warned that corrective measures were needed urgently to avoid a deeper slide. In issuing its grades, Fitch took into account the unavailability of foreign currency and the country's poorly designed economic and fiscal policy.

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