Source: Al Jazeera
Bolivia has nationalised at least four power companies, expanding state control over the Latin American nation’s key industries.
Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, signed a decree authorising the nationalisation at the offices of one of the companies in the city of Cochabamba on Saturday, hours after police had moved in to secure them.
“We are here to nationalise all the hydroelectric plants that were owned by the state before, to comply with the new constitution of the Bolivian state,” Morales said.
“Basic services can not be a private business. We are recovering the energy, the light, for all Bolivians.”
He also said that profits generated from the power firms will fund social programmes for “marginalised” indigenous communities in the country.
Shortly after taking office in 2006, Morales nationalised Bolivia’s natural gas industry and has since taken control of several other utility companies.