Strengthening YPFB as a fundamental support to enable progress in the process of change.

Abstract

In Bolivia, the medium- and long-term debate centers around two opposing visions: one advocating progress through structural change with equity and social inclusion, and another promoting a return to neoliberal models based on privatization and exclusion, masked as modernity. The feasibility of the transformation project supported by social movements—and at one time by the MAS and the government—relies on the strategic use of surplus revenues from the hydrocarbons sector. This implies productively investing oil income in the industrialization of gas and other labor-intensive sectors, aiming to overcome historical dependency, reduce inequalities, and ensure fairer wealth distribution. Success in this endeavor is seen as a patriotic commitment, while its failure would favor a neoliberal framework like that of the previous Hydrocarbons Law No. 1689, which prioritized transnational corporate interests.