G8 news

Poverty in Bolivia

BOLIVIA, LIKE almost all of Latin America countries, has been ruthlessly exploited by imperialism and its local client capitalist rulers. The chief executive of Repsol/YPF (Spain’s largest oil company which has extensive interests in Latin America) admitted earlier this year that “the oil and gas industry is highly profitable in Bolivia: for every dollar invested the companies take out 10 dollars.”

The oil and gas companies take $1.4 billion a year but the Bolivian state only gets around $75 million in taxes. And despite very low extraction costs, fuel prices in Bolivia are higher than internationally.

Notwithstanding huge gas reserves, valued at over $100 billion, Bolivia remains the second poorest country in Latin America (only Haiti is poorer). 5.6 million Bolivians - out of a population of 8 million - live in poverty. Three million Bolivians have neither access to electricity or clean drinking water.