Two items of note. First, from Prensa Latina:
Bolivia completes on August 13 the second and last payment of $56m to the Brazilian oil company Petrobras that transfers two refineries to Bolivian management.
Guillermo Aruquipa, president of state-run Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), said the transaction improved national income from refined oil and gas exports.
Bolivia signed on June 10 a deal with Petrobras to pay $112 million for the refineries “Guillermo Elder Bell” and “Gualberto Villarroel” as part of the fuel nationalization decree of May 2006.
Then, from Aporrea:
The approval rating for the government of Bolivian president Evo Morales is much higher when taking into account the preferences of rural areas, says polling firm IPSOS.
In accordance with this study, the approval rating of the president could rise from 62 to 76%.
Polling directro Luis Garay explained that previous polls did not always take into account rural populations, where the presidential approval rating is greater than 90%.
Translation mine.
You don’t suppose Evo’s larger than expected approval rating has anything to do with the nationalization of the gas (one of his key campaign promises)–do you?
And as a side note: Isn’t it interesting how only now they’re admitting that previous polls were badly skewed towards urbanized areas, where the oligarchy that so rabidly opposes Evo tends to clump up like a nest of mating rattlesnakes? No wonder there were all those news stories painting such a bleak picture for him.
Why, next thing you know, they’ll be forced to admit that those oligarchs are a minority, and that the odds of their regaining power are slim…just as in you-know-where, regarding you-know-who.
Do you suppose they’ll dare to chance it?
