Megatrend Review, vol. 4 (1) 2007 Professor Erika Berkics, PhD, Professor Domingo Lilón, PhD 93 Original scientific paper UDK 338.1(84) Received: January 25 th , 2007 Professor Erika Berkics, PhD University of Pécs, Hungary Professor Domingo Lilón, PhD University of Pécs, Hungary THE POVERTY IN TREASURE OF ENERGY RESOURCES IN COUNTRIES OF LATIN AMERICA: THE CASE OF BOLIVIA* Abstract: Governments in Latin American countries rich in natural gas and oil reserves find themselves in a privileged position while at the same time their societies are burdened with social injustice and inequality, the gap between the rich and the poor is deep and political institutions are weak and unstable. Bolivia is one of the countries rich in natural gas where the indigenous population has brought to power their representa- tive Evo Morales in 2006. Morales immediately conducted the nationalisation of hydro- carbons. In that way, he unified the Bolivian indigenous population in their endeavour against the existing practices with gas which had mainly been in the hands of foreign companies Brazilian “Petrobras”, Spanish “Repsol” and French “Total”. The question remains open as to whether in the current political and economic circumstances Morale’ government would be capable to use the nationalisation of energy resources for the well- being of poor Bolivian population, or the whole issue would end with the exports of national resources as it happened in Venezuela. Key words: energy, Latin America, Bolivia, indigenous movements, poverty 1. Introduction The emergence of India and China in the capacity of two countries with huge industrial and demographic potentials in the 21 st century has contributed to the increased energy consumption. National Intelligence Council (NIC) has issued a report entitled” Global trends 2015-a dialogue about the future with non-governmental experts” which speaks about Asia’s share in the energy con- * This paper has been written within the research “Hungary, Europe and Latin America” supported by Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA – PTE Magyarország, Európa és Ibero-Amerika Kutatócsoport)