Mainstream papers caught with pants down

Everyone was shocked by Evo Morales's announcement yesterday that Bolivia is 'nationalising' its gas industry. 'Nationalising' in quotes because in some cases the government will be taking over 51% of shares in various aspects of the industry, and in others raising taxes foreign companies must pay to 82% of revenues.

This was a gigantic surprise, a secret kept even from almost everyone in the government. There were no leaks. Note that this is the most important announcement out of Bolivia since Evo won election and the NYT story was filed from Rio de Janeiro, the Miami Herald story from Lima, and the Houston Chronicle story that ran in the Toronto Star from Bogota. Also note that all stories only quote experts opposed to the plan and that none quote social movement actors in Bolivia where, in fact, many on the hard left are deriding this as a false nationalization. This LA Times story is the most informative I've read in English so far, though it too fails to capture the reaction of the Boli social movement leaders or participants who have, in the past few years, made 'nationalization' almost an inevitability.

Here's a brief story from Prensa Latina in English with some details on the ramifications of the new law, and this page from Bolivian daily La Razon, if you look on the right, contains a wealth of reporting on the announcement, though in Spanish. I haven't yet come accross anything in depth and reasonably impartial in English, but will post if I do, and feel free to send something along.

Meanwhile, for background on the Boli gas situation in general, this Democracy Centre blog post gives a very brief overview and links to a solid, preliminary analysis of the situation up until recently. Also, for more general background on oil issues in general, also see this Dem Centre post.

You can also read about Spain's proudly socialist government discovery that it may have more in common with Christopher Colombus than Che Guevara as it moves to shield a Spanish oil company.

I'll be writing more about this later today or early tomorrow.