LATIN AMERICA Germans in Bolivia

OE Watch Commentary: Last December, the German government announced some diplomatic efforts in Bolivia aimed toward gaining participation in lithium exploitation there. As the reference from Mineria en Línea indicates, doing big business in Bolivia means doing business with the government and the Bolivian government says it is interested in geopolitical partnership as much as it is in business partnership. The article notes that Germany is making a competitive play that possibly challenges interests of the Chinese, who have been making their own investments in Bolivia. The article does not mention current events involving the Maduro regime in Venezuela, but Bolivia’s government is decidedly Bolivarian and so far an unwavering supporter of the Cuban and Venezuelan Bolivarians. The excerpted article from Gestión reports of a choice recently made by the Bolivians in favor of the Chinese. That choice does not mean the Germans have been cut out, as there is some potential for geographic sorting as to where different operations might occur, as the article indicates. Still, one cannot help but wonder if the timing of the announcement is not related to the “geopolitics” mentioned by the Bolivian Bolivarians, especially given that so much current geopolitics in the Western Hemisphere revolves around the Venezuela question. End OE Watch Commentary (Demarest)

Source: Editors, “En el nuevo “Gran Juego” del litio, Alemania adelanta a China Source: “Bolivia elige firma china para invertir US$ en Bolivia (In the new ‘Great Game’ Germany gets a step on China in Bolivia),” 2,300 millones en proyectos de litio (Bolivia chooses Mineria en Línea, 28 January 2019. https://mineriaenlinea.com/2019/01/en-el- a Chinese Company to invest $2.3 billion in lithium nuevo-gran-juego-del-litio-alemania-adelanta-a-china-en-bolivia/ projects),” Gestión, 6 February 2019. https://gestion. pe/mundo/bolivia-elige-firma-china-invertir-us-2-300- the environment, emphasizing the commitment of Germany in social and millones-proyectos-litio-257968 environmental issues… German diplomats in La Paz also emphasized the high-level German government “Bolivia chose the Chinese Company Xinjiang Tbea support for the project… Group as ‘strategic partner’ to implement various projects of industrialization of lithium… The ACI [German company] victory signifies that Germany now has a beachhead in the last frontier called the Lithium Triangle of South America: the Bolivian The investment calculated for ‘potential projects’ that Uyuni salt lake, one of the largest unexploited deposits in the world… will be carried out in the Coipasa salt flats in Oruro, and in Pastos Grandes, in Potosí, is for some $2.3 Some risks… billion dollars…. While Uyuni has at least 21 million tons of lithium, the nationalization of natural The indicated capital expenditures ‘are subject to resources has been a key policy of Morales… confirmation’ once the results of feasibility studies of the ACI stated that the automobile manufacturers with which it had spoken could not projects is known… confirm anything publicly until final agreement had been reached… The salt flats of Coipasa and Pastos Grandes are close Juan Carlos Montenegro, head of YLB, said that geopolitics is important for to Uyuni…” Bolivia when deciding with what companies to associate itself… “... geopolitics is important for Bolivia...”

Mountains and reflections surrounding the Uyuni salt flat during sunrise, Daniel Campos Province, Potosí Department, southwesten Bolivia. Source: By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47617647. OE Watch | March 2019 59