Morales and Cheney Announce Halliburton to Takeover Santa Cruz

In a stunning move, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Monday that Halliburton Corp. the Texas-based firm managing U.S. civilian operations in Iraq, will take over administration of the department of Santa Cruz. The move was widely seen as an effort to diffuse the explosive political crisis over demands by Santa Cruz that it be granted political autonomy.

“This is an opportunity for Bolivia to put the regional autonomy issue behind us,” said Morales at a packed La Paz news conference. Under a deal negotiated in secret by Bolivian and Santa Cruz officials, at the corporation’s Houston offices, Halliburton will begin administration all of the department’s key public services, as well as its tax collection and interactions with foreign oil firms.

“This step will allow us to move on to the other pressing challenges we face as a people, such as the development of our oil and gas resources, and securing the right to play soccer at 5,000 meters,” said Morales.

Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas appeared side-by-side with the President to endorse the plan. “Santa Cruz is a hard working region and a prosperous one. We believe that by merging that eagerness to work with Halliburton’s well-established management expertise, we can bring new growth and efficiency across the department.”

Under the agreement the position of Governor will be abolished in Santa Cruz and Costas will assume the title of “Regional Director” under the supervision of a Halliburton management committee based in Houston. Santa Cruz civic leaders also announced that they would drop plans for a May 4 vote on the autonomy issue.

Cheney Makes Surprise Visit to Bolivia

Adding to the drama, U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney, en route to a previously scheduled trip to Brazil and Argentina, made an unannounced stopover in Bolivia to support the plan. The Vice President was CEO of Halliburton prior to joining the Republican ticket in 2000 and has played a controversial role in steering U.S. government projects, in Iraq and elsewhere, to his former company.

“This agreement is a landmark in the global effort to bring private sector expertise into public administration,” said Cheney in a brief La Paz appearance with Morales and Costas. “This is also the first time that a private company, from the U.S. or elsewhere, has ever taken over an entire state. This will help Halliburton develop the on-the-ground expertise it needs to eventually take over administration of an entire nation.”

A Cheney assistant, speaking off the record, told the Associated Press that two nations under current consideration for a complete Halliburton takeover are Romania and Malawi, sometime in late 2009.

Deal also Includes “Las Magnificas” and New Flag

According to a Halliburton news release (available here), effective July 1, the company will assume operating responsibility for a range of services, including public schools, water service, administration of the Santa Cruz airport, as well as oversight of the region’s popular beauty pageants. Under the deal, the Santa Cruz beauty queens known as “Las Magnificas” will change their official name to “Those Halliburton Gals” and will make a minimum of two goodwill tours to Texas each year for the duration of the 25-year contract.

Also unveiled Monday was a new Santa Cruz flag. Emblazoned across its traditional green and white stripes will be the Halliburton corporate logo of a $100 bill. This will be the first time that U.S. currency will appear on any government flag. Reuters quoted U.S. representatives here saying that they expected the new flag to help boost the fortunes of the sagging dollar.

“Every time people in Santa Cruz look up, they are going to see Benjamin Franklin smiling down on them,” said a U.S. Embassy official quoted by the news service. “Let’s see the Euro compete with that!”

Political Reaction Mixed

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) representative in Bolivia, Robert Landhom, told La Razon, “We always believed that the Morales government would eventually come around to the inherent wisdom of privatization but frankly, we never expected this. On the basis of this turnaround we think the door is wide open to approach the government about going into heavy foreign debt again as well.”

In El Alto, Felipe Mamani, leader of the left-wing Movement for the Defense of Sovereignty (MDS), said his group was prepared to resort to extremes to block the privatization move. He declared “We cannot allow our Camba brothers and sisters be taken hostage by a U.S. corporation.” MDS leaders threatened to seize the popular mascot of the Fino Cooking Oil Company – the eight-foot-tall Fino Man – until the agreement is rescinded.

In Cochabamba, Governor Manfred Reyes Villa, dismissed the move as, “a transparent act of cowardice by the Morales government to attempt to split our departments.” Reyes Villa told reporters, “Obviously the Halliburton deal was dictated directly from Caracas. But Cochabamba will not be left behind.”

The Cochabamba governor released a letter he sent Monday to Riley Bechtel, CEO of the San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation, inviting the Corporation to return to Cochabamba and begin administration of the region. The Governor urged Bechtel officials to forget their ousting during the 2000 Water Revolt. “Everyone here loves you guys now. We even have plans to rename our local soccer team Bechtelman,” Reyes Villa wrote company officials.

But Santa Cruz civic leaders quickly embraced the move. Civic Committee member Silvia Brocovic told the newspaper El Dia, “Halliburton has promised to deliver smooth administration, modest amounts of corruption spread evenly, and a very large supply of big hats. We see this as a win/win for everyone.”

President Morales’ spokesman, Alex Contreras explained to reporters how the Santa Cruz/ Halliburton deal came about. “These guys came down here and asked to see the President. Naturally we were quite suspicious at first. But after hearing about progress with public works under Halliburton management in Iraq, Evo finally turned to the rest of us and said, ‘Compañeros, isn’t that exactly what we want for Santa Cruz?”

“After that,” said Contreras, it was really just a matter of a few phone calls and working out the details."

“And by the way,” he added, “Did you know that Vice President Cheney likes to chew coca? Who knew?”


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