The Miami Herald reports that Bolivian President Evo Morales has formally nationalized his nation's natural gas reserves:

President Evo Morales signed into law Sunday contracts giving the government control over foreign energy companies' operations, completing a process begun May 1 with the nationalization of Bolivia's petroleum industry. The deals, signed by the companies last month, also grant Morales' government a majority share of the foreign companies' revenues generated in Bolivia.

Like his comrade to the north, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Evo has plans for Bolivia's vast natural gas reserves; he plans to use to use if to fund a social re-engineering, wealth redistribution, and political realignment:

'We thank the Bolivian people who have struggled to recover their natural resources,'' Morales said in a signing ceremony at the presidential palace in the capital of La Paz. ``We have now completed the first step. This process will continue next year with the recovery of other natural resources benefiting the Bolivian people.'' Morales has said he also plans to nationalize Bolivia's mining sector. Bolivia's first Indian president, Morales has vowed to reverse centuries of dominance by the country's European-descended minority, granting greater political and economic power to the poor indigenous majority. Morales recently returned from a trip to Nigeria, which like Bolivia remains bitterly poor despite its vast petroleum reserves. On Sunday, he said he hoped that nationalization initiatives similar to his own might lift oil-rich African nations from poverty. ''If we want to free ourselves as a people, if we want to resolve our social and economic problems, we must both liberate human beings and liberate their economies -- their natural resources, especially,'' Morales said. ``Only then will there be justice and equality.''

What the Evo should have said was that the reason why Nigeria, and for that matter Mexico, are still poor despite their vast petroleum reserves is because their governments are as close to irredeemably corrupt as they can be and still function. Nationalization will accomplish nothing in and of itself if it is not linked to more transparent governance. The only sure result is that power will be concentrated in fewer hands and history has shown that this is a pretty poor prescription for economic growth, let alone such fanciful notions of economic equality.