Looks like Bolivia's next in line for the Belt and Road Bait and Switch, and they're sending out the messaging that they want a shot at what Africa's getting.
That being said, it's not surprising that we'd see this reaction from Bolivia and other economically distressed countries in Latin America given the interest rate increases by the Fed. This caused downstream liquidity problems that the economic minister is directly speaking to. Note, this explanation appears disingenuous, as the Boliviano has been rising against the dollar since the beginning of 2022.
In February 2021, the Arce government returned an amount of around $351 million to the IMF. This comprised a loan of $327 million taken out by the interim government in April 2020 and interest of around $24 million. The government said it returned the loan to protect Bolivia's economic sovereignty and because the conditions attached to the loan were unacceptable
That they did this in the middle of the pandemic is actually a stronger indicator than the attached article that the Arce administration is determined move Bolivia out of the US's economic sphere of influence. This is understandable given the abuses many countries have suffered as a result of IMF policies.
That being said, Belt and Road is a very similar deal, just without the same conditionality that the IMF requires of its debtors. I don't see it being a better choice for Bolivia in the long run, and I would be far more worried about China and Russia gaining additional influence in my country than I would the US, but that's only considering current geopolitics, and disregards the history and scars of US action in Latin America.
I think it's a fairly safe bet to assume it's among the 22 countries which have applied for membership when BRICS expands, or at very least the wider 40 who are interested. There has been a bit of talk lately about BRICS maybe even adopting or creating a single reserve currency, which is going to be interesting if it happens.
IMF is nicknamed "Infant Mortality Fund" in humanitarian aid circles because even when you control for other factors an IMF loan is always accompanied by a rise in infant mortality in the country that receives it, due to the conditions it imposes.
And, Operation Condor still casts a long shadow. Many of the families of the Disappeared are still alive. With allies like that, who needs enemies.
After the 2019 coup and the aftermath, they’re probably not going to embrace the U.S. for a bit. I don’t think they’ll be thrilled with Chinese or Russian involvement either but they already know what working with the U.S. gets them.
Overthrowing someone who first runs against the law because he’s already served the maximum term allowed and then wins by questionable means is not what I’d call a coup
It wasn’t like they ousted Morales and then had new elections watched by Jimmy Carter and the UN or whatever. A right wing government took power and threatened to arrest people who didn’t recognize Añez.
I’m not defending the initial election. I don’t know what happened but it didn’t look 100% legit. But I know everyone acted like it was a coup after the fact. Including famous lithium buying dipshit, Elon Musk: jalopnik.com/why-elon-musk-is-getting-owned-over-…
On the ground, the whole point of “The Olympics” is that an irresponsible authority gets to erase things that people are actually using, right?
Like, is there any other effect for people who actually live in the targeted city? Folks come in and destroy things you like, and replace them with things you’re not allowed to touch. That’s what “The Olympics” does, yeah?
I was thinking if people are still sore about the retirement thing in Paris they should do a slow down or ramp up the protests and no one works to really tell their government how they feel by putting it all on display for the world.
China has infrastructure throughout literally every non-NATO country. They are economically/legally tied to China. MOST, non-American economists agree that it’s the Yuan.
I’m sure Reuters won’t have a biased perspective on that /s
These type of anouncements have been going on forever.
In practice, nothing ever changes. If either Russia or China wants their currency to become one of the worlds hard currencies (like the dollar, euro, pound, franc or yen), they will have to stop manipulating their currencies.
But their autocratic regimes don’t want to give up control to an actually independent central bank, so it won’t happen.
And any country willing to hold large amounts of a manipulated currency would be crazy.
reuters.com
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