LA PAZ, Nov 12 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora said that the supply of diesel fuel and the prices of family basket items would be normalized in the next 10 days after over three weeks of road blockades by followers of former President Evo Morales who want him to run in next year’s elections and be spared the rape and human traffic charges against him.
“After the 24 days of blockades we have expedited a plan and we foresee that in 10 days, starting on Wednesday, which begins the computation, we will solve the issue of the lack of fuel supply and the decrease in prices,” Arce told reporters in Potosí, where he visited the Villa Imperial on the 214th anniversary of the city.
He explained that the department of Potosí also suffered the consequences of the blockades, which caused a price increase in several products by preventing the passage through Cochabamba, affecting both the transportation of fuel and dynamite, essential for the mining activity.
“Today we are already applying our plan to normalize activities in the country. Little by little, prices will begin to fall, to the relief of housewives, transporters, and farmers. Likewise, we will be regularizing the supply of gasoline and diesel, which is so important and urgent,” he said.
The president also recalled that, between January and February this year, there were already blockades after which it took almost three weeks to normalize activities.
Also during the weekend, Arce announced the signing of a second contract with a Chinese contractor to industrialize lithium. “We have also planned this coming week to sign the second contract with a Chinese company and therefore it will be the second contract that we will submit to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, advancing decisively in the industrialization of Bolivian lithium,” he underlined.
The first contract submitted to the Assembly was signed in September this year between Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) and the Russian company Uranium One Group to produce 14,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year in the Uyuni salt flat, Potosí, using DLE (Direct Lithium Extraction) at an investment of more than US$ 970 million.
According to the Hydrocarbons Ministry, DLE is a technology that, unlike the traditional one, in some cases, “more than triples the production levels.” — NNN-MERCOPRESS
