Bolivian Gringo

For years, the Salar de Uyuni has been a remote but popular tourist draw in southern Bolivia: the world’s highest salt desert, whose blinding white expanse stretches to the horizon.
Now, though, the backpackers and locals who depend on their trade fear this spectacular and vast landscape will soon be threatened by multinational mining companies.
Because Bolivia, [...]

State-owned Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos agreed to assume the debts of Royal Dutch Shell and Britain’s Ashmore in nationalized natural-gas pipeline operator Transredes to avoid an arbitration process, YPFB’s chief said Tuesday.
Carlos Villegas told state radio that YPFB will pay Transredes’ $50 million tax bill as well as $120 million each to Shell and Ashmore [...]

The Chilean architects’ plan involves building a long underground tunnel from Bolivia through desert lands in Chile and Peru. It would be big enough for a train, cars, and a natural gas pipeline (click here for illustration). Land removed from the tunnel excavation would be used to make an island in the ocean for Bolivia [...]