Brazil, Venezuela to lend Bolivia US$530M for cross-continent road

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil, Venezuela to lend Bolivia US$530M for cross-continent road
July 18, 2008 4:55 PM

RIBERALTA, Bolivia (AP) - Brazil and Venezuela are promising US$530 million in low-interest loans for Bolivia to complete a highway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Brazil is pledging a 20-year, US$230 million loan to pave 315 miles (510 kilometers) of roadway, while Venezuela is promising US$300 million for the rest.

Presidents from all three countries inked the deal Friday in rural Bolivia.

The 3,800 mile (6,100 kilometer) road stretches from the Brazilian port of Santos to Arica in Chile, boosting cross-continent trade. More than half the highway's path through Bolivia is still unpaved.

The aid could bolster Bolivian President Evo Morales ahead of an August recall referendum.

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/printArticle.jsp?ID=565335193842747128&Section=BUSINESS&Subsection=

[Peace Patriot]

1. That is one helluva long road--the width of the U.S., and then some.

When completed, it will run all the way from the southeast coast of Brazil (vicinity of Rio, and Sao Paulo), on the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwest coast of Chile, on the Pacific Ocean--just below the fattest part of South America.

It raises two interesting and related issues. The first is a war that Chile and Bolivia had, over a hundred years ago, in which Chile took away Bolivia's access to the sea. The new leftist governments of today--one headed by a woman, socialist Michele Batchelet, president of Chile, and the other, the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country), socialist Evo Morales, quickly and fairly easily resolved this dispute, with Chile granting Bolivia sea access at its port in Arica (in a narrowish area in northern Chile--of course, all of Chile is narrow--near Peru, that borders Bolivia). The Bushhites are trying to instigate a civil war in Bolivia--funding (our tax dollars), organizing, training, probably arming the white racists in the eastern provinces, who want to secede and take Bolivia's gas and oil reserves with them. Brazil and Argentina (Bolivia's biggest gas customers) have said that they will not recognize or trade with secessionist states. This leaves the Bushite secession ("divide and conquer") scheme rather up a tree. Bolivia is land-locked. Who do they sell their gas to, and how do they get it there? I presume that Batchelet accords with this leftist resolve to put the kabosh on the secessionists (racists, fascists, Bushites, rich landowners--forbade the indigenous to walk on the sidewalks in the 1950s), and will not permit them to access the port at Arica.

Secondly, the road looks like it will run through some of the secessionist provinces. Will they try to hold it hostage to their demands--that the rich players in their provinces get the lion's share of the country's gas/oil profits, and they get to run their own affairs as the "big dog" white elite in these 'autonomous' states (lord it over the indians)?

I don't think that the white racists want to fully secede, because it is not a feasible plan. They are angling for more money and for power out of proportion to their numbers. They also don't want to give back ANY land to the poor, indigenous farmers who live there. Morales wants land reform. I expect some kind of compromise will be worked out. That's the kind of guy Morales is. He does not want civil war. And the lack of practicality of the secessionists' plans also argues for compromise. As for the Bushites, they want, a) to stir shit up for any and all leftist governments--to instigate trouble, instability, division, and b) when Paraguay was still under rightwing rule (it is no longer--leftist elected this year--strong good guy), their plan to create a fascist mini-state that controls the gas/oil resources had more potential, but the new leftist president of Paraguay will not permit them to use Paraguay as a launching pad for U.S. military (or mercenary) support of this plot.

However, it continues to be in the interest of Exxon Mobil & pals to cause trouble in Bolivia, so their local fascists may do so, and are going so, currently. The road may be their weapon of choice. They could paralyze Bolivia--and slow down Morales' progressive development plans--by shutting it down. I'm not sure how much of the road is already in place, or exactly where it is. Google refuses to map it.

I certainly observe this new development--Brazil and Venezuela helping Bolivia, and Chile getting it un-land-locked--with joy and hope. Leftist solidarity is a wonderful thing. Rightwingers, fascists and predatory capitalists attempt to crush the poor and defeat each other. They are playing a losing and vicious competition game. That's why South America has never had cooperative, progressive, healthy unity before this, and all of the benefits that that can bring--prosperity, social justice, a good society. The U.S. kept destroying democratic (and necessarily leftist, since the majority is leftist) governments, and installing vicious, murdering, thieving, exploitative assholes. The U.S. didn't do this to Europe after WW II. It took a positive and generous attitude toward Europe, even Germany, and the result was prosperity for all, high levels of social justice, and eventually the EU (integration, cooperation). But, in South America, the U.S. and its corporate predators continually ripped the social fabric up, encouraged torture and murder of leftists, and prevented cooperation (except in bad, bad deeds). Now South America--after long hard work on its democratic institutions--is heading fast toward a South American "Common Market." And it will succeed, in the end, because of projects like this--countries helping each other, all benefiting.

And the U.S., with its Bushite belligerency, and even with Obama-style imperialism (in thrall to corporate looters and war profiteers), will fail. We are already failing--at a very fast clip. I am certainly not happy to see us--we, the people--fail. And I am certain that most South American leaders and their people feel no joy at it, either--and would like for the whole hemisphere to be cooperating on social justice and other matters.

I just wanted to say that I see a danger in this road project as well as so much that is positive. Predatory capitalists, and fascists like the Bolivian separatists, tend to sit back and let the poor pay for, and do all the work on, projects like this--common good projects--then they pounce, and rip it off in some way. They privatize and exploit. They find tax loopholes, so they don't have to help pay for upkeep. They hold public works hostage. They blackmail. They seek dominance--and they couldn't give a fuck for the future. They want more riches than anybody, and they want it now.

So I'm a bit worried that that is what the Bolivian fascists will do--let Venezuela and Brazil pay for it, and then privatize it, or hold it hostage.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Such good insights here. It's absolutely important to start thinking about how the oligarchy will

utilize this new opportunity which has been meant to serve the country, itself, which is mostly indigenous people.

It most likely will be their focus as a way to get out of the box created by Brazil and Argentina's determination NOT to do business with the Half Moon scum when they attempt to break away, taking Bolivia's wealth with them. (You may recall these same people benefited mightily when the economic weight was carried by the mining industries in the mountains, and the indigenous people supplied ALL the work and movement, while the European-descended scum oligarchs took all the profits, just as the flatland indigenous population does all their work for them on their government-supplied property, much of it as late as the 1960's, which used to belong to the indigenous population before they were forced off their own land, inhabited by generations of their ancestors.)

Thanks for the info. google's not showing any maps of the new totally important superhighway. That will save a lot of time and frustration.

You are so right in the characteristic of oligarchs in, as true parasites, waiting until all the necessary connections are made by the hard work of the hosts, stepping forward to take complete control, violent, if "necessary," and possible.

[Peace Patriot]

2. That is one helluva long road--the width of the U.S., and then some.

When completed, it will run all the way from the southeast coast of Brazil (vicinity of Rio, and Sao Paulo), on the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwest coast of Chile, on the Pacific Ocean--just below the fattest part of South America.

It raises two interesting and related issues. The first is a war that Chile and Bolivia had, over a hundred years ago, in which Chile took away Bolivia's access to the sea. The new leftist governments of today--one headed by a woman, socialist Michele Batchelet, president of Chile, and the other, the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country), socialist Evo Morales, quickly and fairly easily resolved this dispute, with Chile granting Bolivia sea access at its port in Arica (in a narrowish area in northern Chile--of course, all of Chile is narrow--near Peru, that borders Bolivia). The Bushhites are trying to instigate a civil war in Bolivia--funding (our tax dollars), organizing, training, probably arming the white racists in the eastern provinces, who want to secede and take Bolivia's gas and oil reserves with them. Brazil and Argentina (Bolivia's biggest gas customers) have said that they will not recognize or trade with secessionist states. This leaves the Bushite secession ("divide and conquer") scheme rather up a tree. Bolivia is land-locked. Who do they sell their gas to, and how do they get it there? I presume that Batchelet accords with this leftist resolve to put the kabosh on the secessionists (racists, fascists, Bushites, rich landowners--forbade the indigenous to walk on the sidewalks in the 1950s), and will not permit them to access the port at Arica.

Secondly, the road looks like it will run through some of the secessionist provinces. Will they try to hold it hostage to their demands--that the rich players in their provinces get the lion's share of the country's gas/oil profits, and they get to run their own affairs as the "big dog" white elite in these 'autonomous' states (lord it over the indians)?

I don't think that the white racists want to fully secede, because it is not a feasible plan. They are angling for more money and for power out of proportion to their numbers. They also don't want to give back ANY land to the poor, indigenous farmers who live there. Morales wants land reform. I expect some kind of compromise will be worked out. That's the kind of guy Morales is. He does not want civil war. And the lack of practicality of the secessionists' plans also argues for compromise. As for the Bushites, they want, a) to stir shit up for any and all leftist governments--to instigate trouble, instability, division, and b) when Paraguay was still under rightwing rule (it is no longer--leftist elected this year--strong good guy), their plan to create a fascist mini-state that controls the gas/oil resources had more potential, but the new leftist president of Paraguay will not permit them to use Paraguay as a launching pad for U.S. military (or mercenary) support of this plot.

However, it continues to be in the interest of Exxon Mobil & pals to cause trouble in Bolivia, so their local fascists may do so, and are going so, currently. The road may be their weapon of choice. They could paralyze Bolivia--and slow down Morales' progressive development plans--by shutting it down. I'm not sure how much of the road is already in place, or exactly where it is. Google refuses to map it.

I certainly observe this new development--Brazil and Venezuela helping Bolivia, and Chile getting it un-land-locked--with joy and hope. Leftist solidarity is a wonderful thing. Rightwingers, fascists and predatory capitalists attempt to crush the poor and defeat each other. They are playing a losing and vicious competition game. That's why South America has never had cooperative, progressive, healthy unity before this, and all of the benefits that that can bring--prosperity, social justice, a good society. The U.S. kept destroying democratic (and necessarily leftist, since the majority is leftist) governments, and installing vicious, murdering, thieving, exploitative assholes. The U.S. didn't do this to Europe after WW II. It took a positive and generous attitude toward Europe, even Germany, and the result was prosperity for all, high levels of social justice, and eventually the EU (integration, cooperation). But, in South America, the U.S. and its corporate predators continually ripped the social fabric up, encouraged torture and murder of leftists, and prevented cooperation (except in bad, bad deeds). Now South America--after long hard work on its democratic institutions--is heading fast toward a South American "Common Market." And it will succeed, in the end, because of projects like this--countries helping each other, all benefiting.

And the U.S., with its Bushite belligerency, and even with Obama-style imperialism (in thrall to corporate looters and war profiteers), will fail. We are already failing--at a very fast clip. I am certainly not happy to see us--we, the people--fail. And I am certain that most South American leaders and their people feel no joy at it, either--and would like for the whole hemisphere to be cooperating on social justice and other matters.

I just wanted to say that I see a danger in this road project as well as so much that is positive. Predatory capitalists, and fascists like the Bolivian separatists, tend to sit back and let the poor pay for, and do all the work on, projects like this--common good projects--then they pounce, and rip it off in some way. They privatize and exploit. They find tax loopholes, so they don't have to help pay for upkeep. They hold public works hostage. They blackmail. They seek dominance--and they couldn't give a fuck for the future. They want more riches than anybody, and they want it now.

So I'm a bit worried that that is what the Bolivian fascists will do--let Venezuela and Brazil pay for it, and then privatize it, or hold it hostage.