LA PAZ, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Bolivian President Evo Morales appointed Luis Fernando Vincenti as the country’s new energy minister on Saturday, in a Cabinet shuffle a day after starting his second presidential term.

Bolivia has the second-largest natural gas reserves in South America after Venezuela and is the region’s top exporter of the fuel.

Vincenti, who formerly sat on the board of directors at YPFB, the state energy company, was appointed to replace Oscar Coca as part of a Cabinet shake-up in which Morales also named Milton Gomez Mamani to replace Luis Alberto Echazu as mining minister.

“The first goal is to fight shortages in the domestic market. The second goal is to forge ahead with YPFB’s plans to explore and develop fields to start producing natural gas, and the third goal is to guarantee exports,” Vincenti told the state television network after being named to the cabinet.

Morales, a leftist and Bolivia’s first indigenous president, was sworn in for a second term on Friday. He won more than 64 percent of the vote in a December election.

He nationalized the energy industry in May 2006, and raised taxes on foreign energy companies including Spain’s Repsol <REP.MC>, Brazil’s Petrobras <PETR4.SA> <PBR.N> and France’s Total <TOTF.PA>.

The nationalization of the natural gas industry brought a windfall that Morales used to boost social spending, but his government has so far failed to attract investment to increase output and corruption has hampered efforts by YPFB to develop projects to produce natural-gas derivatives.

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Bolivian President Evo Morales began his second term on Friday vowing to further tighten state control over South America’s poorest economy and develop some of the world’s largest lithium reserves.

Morales, an Aymara Indian and Bolivia’s first indigenous president, won a sweeping re-election victory in December on the back of broad support from the poor Indian majority.

In a speech to inaugurate his second term, Morales promised to launch state-run paper, cement, dairy and drug companies and develop iron and lithium industries to help Bolivia export value-added products instead of raw materials. (For details, see [ID:nN22234310])

He also reached out to foreign investors, wary after his energy industry nationalizations in 2006 and similar moves by Venezuela’s firebrand socialist President Hugo Chavez.

“We need a lot of money to industrialize lithium … we’re ready to negotiate (with foreign investors) to guarantee investments,” Morales said in La Paz, his inauguration attended by several South American presidents, including leftist allies Chavez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa.

Morales, 50, said Bolivia needed “partners but not patrons.”

Bolivia has huge deposits of lithium but unlike neighboring Argentina and Chile it does not exploit the metal.

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Argentine President Cristina Fernandez asked lawmakers on Tuesday to discuss her firing of the Central Bank chief in an effort to defuse a row over her plan to use foreign currency reserves to pay debt.

Fernandez’s plan to use $6.6 billion in central bank reserves to make debt payments this year has sparked legal challenges and political tension, rattling financial markets and raising concerns that a planned bond swap could be delayed.

However, Fernandez said the turmoil at the Central Bank would have no effect on the planned swap of $20 billion in defaulted bonds, which the Argentine government is expected to launch in the next few weeks.

“The top priority now is to resolve the issue of the Central Bank’s presidency,” she told a news conference, calling on congressional commissions to elect authorities to discuss a presidential decree she signed firing the Central Bank chief.

“The commissions will meet this week, name their presidents and they could issue a recommendation — whether positive or negative, because as you know, it would be non-binding,” she added.

Fernandez had previously resisted calls from opposition leaders who argue she needs to consult Congress to remove Central Bank President Martin Redrado and to use the foreign currency reserves to pay debt.

Rosendo Fraga, an Argentine political analyst, said her decision was unlikely to halt political bickering set off by her reserves plan.

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 15 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday lifted a freeze on Argentine Central Bank funds that had further clouded the president’s plan to use billions of dollars in foreign currency reserves to pay debt.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa froze an account held by the Central Bank in the U.S. Federal Reserve earlier this week, deepening a political and legal row over the reserves plan and raising doubts about possible delays to a planned debt swap.

Central Bank Chief Martin Redrado said Griesa had lifted the freeze, which was issued in response to a lawsuit by holders of defaulted bonds, but added that a final ruling in the case had not yet been issued.

“This proves the importance of showing the independence of the Central Bank. What was at stake here? The decision to embargo funds all over the world, not just in the United States,” he told local television.

President Cristina Fernandez sacked Redrado last week because he had opposed using $6.6 billion in reserves to help pay some $13 billion in debt obligations this year, but an Argentine judge reinstated him a day later.

Redrado reportedly opposed the plan partly because he feared it might allow the so-called holdout bondholders to freeze Central Bank reserves.

The investors are known as holdouts because they rejected a 2005 debt restructuring that saw many bondholders accept a steep discount.

LA PAZ (Reuters) – Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales vowed on Monday to increase state control over the economy and strengthen political power for indigenous groups, a day after exit polls showed he was re-elected in a landslide.

Bolivia’s top electoral body has not yet released official results, but exit polls and quick counts showed Morales took at least 63 percent of the vote, more than 35 percentage points ahead of his closest challenger, rightist former Governor Manfred Reyes Villa.

Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party also looked likely to win two-thirds of the seats in both houses of Congress, exit polls showed.

That leaves his divided conservative opposition with little power to oppose his reforms during his five-year second term.

Morales, an Aymara Indian, is Bolivia’s first indigenous president and is hugely popular among the Indian majority that also supported a constitutional reform earlier this year to allow him to run for a second consecutive term in South America’s poorest country.

“Bolivians have given us an enormous responsibility to deepen this transformation,” he said. “Bolivians have punished the people who are traitors of this process.”

Critics say Morales, 50, has scared away crucial foreign investment with nationalizations of companies and is not acting on behalf of all Bolivians but primarily for Aymara, Quechua and other indigenous ethnic groups.

LA PAZ (Reuters) – Bolivian President Evo Morales was heading for a landslide re-election on Sunday as voters backed his left-wing reforms asserting greater state control over the economy and increasing social spending on the poor.

Exit polls and a quick count tabulation by Uno television showed Morales took at least 61 percent of the vote and held a lead of more than 35 percentage points over his closest challenger, rightist former governor Manfred Reyes Villa.

Victory would cement Morales’ dominance over Bolivian politics and a severely weakened and divided conservative opposition tied to the country’s business elite.

Veronica Canizaya, a 49-year-old housewife said she voted for Morales because of his aid programs in South America’s poorest country.

“He’s changing things,” she said before casting her ballot at a public school on the shores of Lake Titicaca. “He’s helping the poor and building highways and schools.”

Morales is an ally of Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez and ramped up social spending in his first term, tapping increased government revenue after he nationalized Bolivia’s energy industry in 2006 and raised taxes on natural gas production. Bolivia is South America’s top exporter of the fuel.

But opponents say he has failed to increase output, stamp out corruption in the state-run energy company and develop the natural gas industry, signs of future challenges as Morales tightens the state’s grip on the economy.

LA PAZ, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales easily won re-election on Sunday, three television exit polls showed.

Morales received at least 61 percent of the vote, according to exit polls released by the private TV channels ATB, Uno and PAT. His closest rival, rightist former governor Manfredo Reyes Villa, had about 23 percent of votes.

Morales, whose socialist economic policies and increased social welfare have made him broadly popular with Bolivia’s poor but angered business leaders, is expected to use a second term to expand state control over the economy.

A victory by Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, would solidify his dominance over Bolivian politics and further weaken a divided conservative opposition tied to the country’s business elite.

His Movement Toward Socialism party is also expected to win control of Congress in Sunday’s election.

In his first term, Morales nationalized the energy industry, and the state took over mining and telecommunications companies, generating a windfall he has used to boost social spending.

Morales needs to garner more than 50 percent to avoid a second round and can also win if he takes 40 percent and holds a 10-point lead. (Editing by Kieran Murray)

LA PAZ, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose leftist economic policies have made him broadly popular with the poor but angered business leaders, is expected to win re-election on Sunday, allowing him to expand state control over the economy.

A victory by Morales would solidify his dominance over Bolivian politics and further weaken a divided conservative opposition tied to the country’s business elite.

Opinion polls show Morales, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, taking more than 50 percent of the vote and his Movement Toward Socialism party could win control of Congress.

Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, nationalized important sectors of the economy in his first term, including energy and mining companies, which generated a windfall for state coffers that he has used to boost social spending.

The cash payments to benefit such groups as school children and retirees have added to his popularity among Bolivia’s disenfranchised Indian majority that celebrated his defeat of the country’s long-ruling traditional parties four years ago.

“There are two roads: continue with change or return to the past,” Morales told tens of thousands of supporters at his final campaign rally.

A former llama herder and coca leaf farmer raised in extreme poverty, Morales faces two conservative rivals, Manfred Reyes Villa, a former governor and army captain, and wealthy cement magnate Samuel Doria Medina. [ID:nN02465235]

LA PAZ, Nov 26 (Reuters) – A consortium led by Spain’s largest oil company Repsol <REP.MC> will invest $1.5 billion to boost natural gas output in Bolivia, which will allow the country to increase exports to Argentina, the company’s CEO said on Thursday.

Antonio Brufau, Repsol’s chief executive officer, announced the investment after a meeting with Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales in La Paz.

He said the investment will allow the company to increase output in its Huacaya and Margarita fields to 8 million cubic meters a day in 2012 from the current 2 million cubic meters, and to 14 million cubic meters a day by mid-2013.

The fields are inside the Caipipendi block, in which Repsol has a 37.5 percent operating stake, BG Group Plc <BG.L> has 37.5 percent, and Panamerican Energy 25 percent.

In a statement released on Thursday Repsol said its share of the investment was nearly $600 million.

The money will be spent to drill natural gas wells, build pipeline infrastructure and a natural gas processing plant, another Repsol official told Reuters.

Brufau added that in the area where Repsol will be investing there are proven reserves of 3.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but the total amount could reach up to 12 trillion cubic feet.

LA PAZ, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Bolivia is optimistic it will develop a large-scale lithium industry at the Uyuni salt lake single-handedly by 2014, even though the country has never produced lithium, its mining minister said.

Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, recently said it would invest up to $500 million to build a plant to produce lithium carbonate at Uyuni, believed to be one of the world’s largest lithium deposits.

Bolivia has around 50 percent of the world’s lithium, about 5.4 million tonnes, but it does not mine the metal — unlike neighboring Chile and Argentina, which also hold big reserves.

After negotiating with companies including France’s Bollore <BOLL.PA>, South Korea’s LG <051910.KS>, and Japan’s Sumitomo <4005.T> and Mitsubishi Corp <8058.T>, Bolivia’s leftist government decided to develop a lithium industry in Uyuni by itself because the firms did not offer to manufacture lithium batteries in the landlocked South American country.

“We know there are obstacles … (but) we’re optimistic we’ll have a large lithium plant on target (by 2014),” Mining Minister Luis Alberto Echazu told reporters late on Friday after a summit of lithium experts in La Paz.

Lithium carbonate is the main component of the rechargeable batteries that power portable electronic devices. Demand for the metal could soar if car makers raise production of hybrid cars or start large-scale manufacturing of electric vehicles.

According to the government, the plant will produce up to 30,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate a year, which represents around 30 percent of the current global supply.