AeroSur Airlines in Bolivia (Photo: AeroSur.com)
Earlier today, Bolivian president Evo Morales announced plans to nationalise the country’s three largest airports. The airport operator Bolivian Airports Service Company (SABSA), a subsidiary of the Spanish firm Abertis y Aena, is accused of not carrying out agreed investments towards updating its facilities.
The decision to nationalise SABSA was taken after executives refused to increase their initial investment of US$36m, required to maintain and develop the country’s principal airports. The military is set to take control of airport terminals in El Alto (La Paz), Viru-Viru (Santa Cruz), and Wilsterman (Cochabamba). In Bolivia, it is common practice for troops to be dispatched to recently nationalised companies.
SABSA is the third Spanish company to be nationalised in less than a year in what began with the expropriation of Red Eléctrica in May 2012, followed by two electricity distribution companies owned by Spanish utility Iberdrola in December of the same year.
The nationalisation of SABSA reflects attempts by the Bolivian government to reclaim control of the country’s strategic resources, including natural gas, minerals, and public services. It is a move which aims to promote and indeed facilitate state-led development of the country without direct foreign interference. Morales issued the statement from the main city of Cochabamba, accompanied by vice-president Álvaro García Linera and the minister for public works, Vladimir Sánchez.
Seems in vogue these days, the Nationalization of everything in South America. The only problem with nationalization is once the state gains control, only the state enjoys the option of giving it back to private companies. Private companies have few options in South America.; either tow the Govt. line or risk nationalization.
I hope things work out for Evo Morales. Make sure you rid yourself of all those nasty foreigners and their crooked investments! Oh yeah, don’t forget to invest the state’s money in your new project. Where does that come from?
President Morales now has a new outlet for patronage jobs. The question is; was the public being well served by the privately owned airports? Were customers well served by a privately owned power company? Ultimately, who cares who owns the airports, oil companies, power companies as long as the public is getting value for money. The record shows that when governments poke their fat fingers into the economy, it lags and eventually fails. There is one question that no one in this publication has seen fit to answer; what about due process? The law is supposed to protect citizens from arbitrary actions like this. In a country with a judicial system that actually works, the private company would take the government to court. The government would have to demonstrate that its actions were legally justified. But then, in countries where laws and constitutions come and go with alarming regularity and speed, it is not surprising that the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful and the poor stay right where they always were.