IDB approves $204 million credit for electrification of Pando and Beni

The Bolivian government has secured a significant credit line of $204 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to fund the electrification of the Pando and Beni departments. President Rodrigo Paz Pereira hailed this as the largest historical investment in electrical energy for these regions.

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This credit is the largest investment in history for both departments concerning electrical energy.

The immediate benefit for Pando and Beni will be a reduced dependence on diesel fuel, leading to lower expenses for households and productive sectors. This initiative is crucial as the country faces challenges with fuel costs exacerbated by international conflicts and difficulties in securing supply, which was previously produced domestically.

However, the credit is contingent on approval from the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP). President Paz Pereira has appealed to the parliamentarians from Pando and Beni to vote in favor of the loan, emphasizing that its passage will bolster electrification efforts in their territories and the northern Amazon region.

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We cannot continue operating with diesel, besides it already being expensive due to international conflicts and difficult to bring this fuel that was previously produced in Bolivia.

President Paz Pereira also took the opportunity to criticize the previous governments, particularly those of the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) party. He accused them of failing to uphold their proclaimed principles of integrity and of mismanaging the nation's hydrocarbon wealth over 20 years. He specifically pointed to a lack of reinvestment in oil exploration, which he claims has led to Bolivia's current inability to produce, exploit, or export fuels, contrasting it with past claims of energy sovereignty.

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They lied to us, they stole from us and they generated a lack of fuel for us, because it was supposed that after 20 years we would be sovereign in hydrocarbons.

Ultimately, the president reiterated that the new electrical connections for the northern Amazon will benefit families in Beni and Pando. Furthermore, he anticipates that this development will stimulate regional economic activity by encouraging investment in these departments.

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The greatest laziness was that the MAS regime did not reinvest in oil exploration and that is why, today, Bolivia does not produce, exploit, or export fuels.