President Evo Morales has decreed he is nationalizing Bolivia's vast natural gas industry, sending soldiers to occupy gas fields and threatening to evict foreign companies unless they give the Andean nation control over the entire chain of production. The move fulfills an election promise by the leftist president, who has forged close ties with Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela' Hugo Chavez, to increase state control over Bolivia's natural resources, which he says have been "looted" by foreign companies. Morales on Monday sent soldiers and engineers with Bolivia's state-owned oil company to installations and fields tapped by foreign companies. The companies had six months to agree to new contracts or leave Bolivia, he said. "The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, said in a speech from the San Alberto field, according to a report of the Associated Press. State television aired footage of soldiers and police standing guard outside some gas installations and petroleum company offices in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, where much of the industry is based. Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said troops were sent to 56 locations nationwide. "The looting by the foreign companies has ended," Morales declared.
