La Paz, Jan 11 (Prensa Latina) The Bolivian government reaffirmed on Tuesday that public transportation fares would not change, and asked local governments to ensure enforcement of this decision, to preserve the economy of the people.

  After holding talks with union members, Minister of Works, Services and Housing Walter Delgadillo reaffirmed the support of the administration for the decision made by the Telecommunications Authority and Transport (ATT) to maintain established fares.

For this reason, Delgadillo asked authorities from the nine departments and councils to enforce the corresponding regulations to preserve the economy of the Bolivian people.

The 2009 Constitution and the Framework Law on Autonomy establish that regional governments “are in charge of regulating, setting and administrating the fares and everything related to urban transportation,” Delgadillo noted.

However, the government of President Evo Morales is open to “reconcile criteria” with transportation workers to find alternatives to meet their demands.

Source: Prensa Latina

The Union Confederation of Drivers of Bolivia met on Friday in the eastern city of Santa Cruz and decided – beginning on Monday – to implement the fare hike, which will vary by region, after having kept fares frozen for more than a decade.

A technical and financial study the Transportation Authority ordered a private consulting firm to undertake in 2010 found that the fares could rise by 42 percent, the executive secretary for the sector, Franklin Duran, said.

The transport workers have the right to an increase in fares “because they have family” like any worker who demands a salary hike, Duran said.

Morales, at a press conference held Saturday in the central province of Cochabamba, lamented the transport workers’ decision and asked the country’s city halls “to work … to halt any fare increase” for public transportation.

The government raised the cost of the main liquid fuels in the country between 57 percent and 82 percent two weeks ago, a move that spurred the transport workers to raise fares between 50 percent and 100 percent, as well as sparking a rise in food prices.

A wave of protests by unions and neighborhood organizations forced Morales to reverse the measure, which had been taken to direct to other areas the resources that had been allotted for subsidizing the cost of fuels in the domestic market and halting fuel smuggling.

Unions and Indian groups have asked Morales to replace some of his Cabinet officers whom they blame for the latest social conflict resulting from the so-called “gasoline blow,” something that has been discounted by the president.

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune

  Rather, the plurinational State plans to finance housing for poor people and coordinate policies to ensure respect for personal property and real state, in keeping with the Constitution of 2009, he said.

During a TV interview broadcast by Fides TV, Morales said that he even asked the Minister of Public Works, Walter Delgadillo, to build houses for people who do not have.

On the other hand, the Bolivian Government is considering raising wages in public administration, covering between 180 thousand and 250 thousand jobs that are paid by the Treasury.

When he became President in 2006, Morales cut his own salary as a prelude to an austerity policy limiting payments to 15 thousand bolivars, or about two thousand dollars.

But now, he admitted, the proposed increase responds to a policy to retain a mass of professionals and technicians working for the State, who could resign in search of better earnings in the private sector.

Morales, who encouraged the law against public corruption and did not hesitate to imprison his collaborator Santos Ramirez, who caused costly damages to a state enterprise, reiterated that he will never be charged with profiting from public funds.

Source: Prensa Latina

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Nov. 1 (UPI) — Bolivia has expressed interest in possibly purchasing Iranian-made military planes, helicopters for training purposes.

According to Bolivian Finance Minister Luis Arce, his government is considering Iran’s Fajr-3, S-68 and 52-seat Iran-140 aircraft along with four-seat helicopters, Radio Patria Nueva reported Monday.

Last week Bolivian President Evo Morales and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a $287 million credit line for Bolivia and five memorandums of understanding, mainly on industrial cooperation and technology transfer.

Arce told journalists: “I think that quickly implementing these is critical to receive the benefits of these agreements that really will provide a unique framework for the nation to join in (Iran’s) production and technological innovation in the country. In the near future Bolivian missions and business delegations are expected to travel to Iran to begin the implementation of these projects.”

Arce added that his government hopes for Iran’s cooperation in eventually constructing a nuclear power plant for peaceful purposes and Iranian support in maintaining Bolivian air force fighters.

Source: UPI

Bolivian Economy Minister Luis Arce dismissed media reports that Bolivia had launched joint actions with Iran to exploit uranium.

“The uranium issue is not on the agenda, neither in any agreements. We have not decided on anything about uranium and still we do not have conditions to do it. We do not have any plan for this issue,” Arce said.

Arce went on to say that although his country has mining agreements with Iran, they do not have anything to do with uranium.

He regretted that some politicians from the opposition and media reports tried to describe the Bolivian-Iranian ties as a threat to world peace.

Source:Xinhua

“The Bolivian government has expressed its interest in purchasing some planes and helicopters made in Iran, which are basically for training,” Bolivian Economy Minister Luis Arce was quoted as saying.

Iranian technicians will be in charge of the maintenance of the aircraft in Bolivia.

Arce said the purchase deal was reached when Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Iran last week, where he met with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Morales’ visit was aimed at strengthening his country’s strategic alliance with Iran and signing five Memorandums of Understanding.

Source:Xinhua

 
World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
 
Following the failure of the negotiations in Copenhagen the Bolivian government held the April 2010 conference in Cochabamba to give governments and civil society the opportunity to find solutions to deal with climate change together. Over 35,000 people from 147 countries attended including 47 government delegations. The key elements of the “People’s Agreement” resulting from the conference are:

• Climate justice: the rich nations in Europe and North America are historically responsible for causing climate change and so must reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. They have the moral obligation, due to the ‘climate debt’ they have accumulated, to assist poorer nations in adapting to the impacts of climate change and helping them to develop low carbon economies based on renewable energy. To do this they should use 6% of their GDP to provide funding without conditionality. Intellectual property rights should be bypassed to enable the free exchange of green technology.
• Free market capitalism is the root cause of climate change because its focus on limitless growth has failed to take account of the impact this has on the environment. A new model is needed whereby humans live in harmony with the natural world – the concept of living well rather than living better at the expense of others and the environment.
• Rejection of the Copenhagen Accord. An agreement that was not ambitious, fair or legally binding which was imposed by a select 26 countries at the end of the Copenhagen conference outside of the UN process.
• Carbon markets and carbon offsetting are rejected because they are a means for rich nations to pay poorer nations to, for example, protect forests while they do not reduce their overall carbon emissions.
• Rejection of agro-fuels and the privatisation of water.
• Increase in global temperature not to exceed 1° C above pre-industrial levels.
• 50% reduction in emissions by rich countries, compared to 1990 levels, by 2017.
• Nature should be protected through a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth including its right to regenerate itself and not be polluted.
• Support for an International Climate Justice Tribunal. The court would judge cases of damage to the environment committed by multi-national companies, governments or other individuals.
• Defend human rights including those of indigenous peoples and climate migrants.
• Global referendum in 2011 on action to be taken by companies and rich countries.
• Creation of the World People’s Movement to defend the Rights of Mother Earth to take forward the People’s Agreement of Cochabamba and to hold a second World People’s Conference in April 2011.

  Further information is on the conference website.
 
Taking the People’s Agreement to the United Nations
 
Although the conference was held outside of the official UNFCCC process its final People’s Agreement was presented by Bolivia as an official submission to the negotiations in August. The Bolivian delegation has successfully ensured some of the proposals have been included in the official negotiating texts for the next annual meeting in Mexico at the end of 2010. However, this does not mean they will necessarily become part of the final global agreement. The People’s Agreement calls for rich nations to reduce their emissions by 50% by 2017 compared to 1990 levels while rich nations have put forward a target of 40% by 2020. The People’s Agreement states that temperatures should not be allowed to increase above 1° C whilst developed countries are pushing for limits of 1.5° C and 2° C. 

Bolivia’s role in the negotiations
 
The UNFCCC negotiations are dominated by geo-political relations. The United States and China, at loggerheads, together are in fact responsible for 40% of global carbon emissions. Rich countries in North America and Europe, whose industrial development led to the high carbon emissions causing climate change, refuse to commit to reducing their emissions, unless fast developing countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa agree to reduce theirs. The poorer nations urgently demand immediate action as they are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In this context Bolivia is trying to push the boundaries of negotiations in an attempt to make the final agreement more ambitious and consistent with the principles of climate justice.
 
The People’s Agreement provides a landmark in the process of climate change negotiations. Bolivia has played a key role in promoting the rights of indigenous peoples and along with others has defended the Kyoto Protocol, trying to ensure approval of an agreement which will seriously tackle the question of emissions and take on the costs of adaptation to climate change.
 
The possibility of Bolivia and other countries influencing the negotiations depends in part on the one country-one vote rule remaining in place. This allowed Bolivia (along with Tuvalu, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, amongst others) to prevent the Copenhagen Accord from being approved as an official UNFCCC agreement. There has been pressure put on some nations who did not sign up to the Copenhagen Accord, and in July 2010 some rich countries were talking of scrapping the one country-one vote system.  

Bolivian civil society
 
Bolivia’s social and indigenous movements are taking an active role in pushing the Bolivian government to defend the environment at home. At the international level they are pushing for climate justice and promoting proposals for recognition of the Rights of Mother Earth and setting up of the Climate Justice Tribunal. Bolivia is already suffering the effects of climate change: rapid melting of glaciers in the Andes threatens water and electricity supplies; changing weather is jeopardising rural livelihoods and extreme conditions such as regional flooding and droughts are on the increase. Representatives of social and indigenous movements are attending the UNFCCC meetings to share their experiences of these impacts, showing the urgent need for us to live in harmony with the environment.

Source: Bolivia Information Forum

“Cancun must give a hope and life message for the humankind. We cannot have failures again, because it could be too late to save the humankind,” Morales said.

“Cancun should not just meet the interests of the developed countries, but those of the mankind,” Morales said, stressing that the industrialized countries must take measures to save the planet.

The dilemma of global warming is a worldwide problem which will affect the planet’s future, he was quoted as saying by local media.

He noted that the industrialized countries developed their economies without thinking about the environment, so it is the time to save the planet.

Morales also said that it is necessary to approve policies to defend the humankind and the Earth during the Cancun conference.

The 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention will be held in Cancun from Nov. 29 to Dec. 5. Representatives from some 190 countries and regions are expected to seek an agreement at the UN-sponsored gathering to tackle global climate change.

Source:Xinhua

ABI cited the Peruvian ambassador in La Paz, Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros, as saying that next Sunday in Ilo there will be a ceremony to lay the first stone of the building.

The ceding of territory comes in response to the protocol signed Oct. 19 in the port city by the presidents of Bolivia and Peru – Evo Morales and Alan Garcia, respectively – broadening a bilateral accord signed in 1992.

Bolivia lost its Pacific coastline to Chile in a 19th-century war that pitted La Paz and Lima against Santiago.

Chile has repeatedly refused Bolivian demands for a sovereign outlet to the Pacific.

The Bolivian naval annex in Ilo will house some 250 troops, including students, instructors and support personnel, and the protocol also authorizes vessels of the Bolivian navy to navigate in the area for cooperative and training purposes.

In addition, Peru renewed for 99 years Bolivia’s right to use the port facilities and free transit through Ilo for Bolivian exports and opened up the possibility of setting up industries in the port’s Free Zone. EFE

Source: EFE

Bolivia and Iran “”have expressed interest in developing cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy,”" Morales, who newly returned from a visit to Tehran, told a press conference in Cochabamba, 383 km from Bolivia’s capital, La Paz.
Iran has offered to set up a join venture with Bolivia on lithium battery and nuclear electricity production, Morals told the press conference.

Bolivia has the right to develop peaceful use of nuclear energy, and no one has the right to interfere, he added.

Source: Xinhua