Hey, that's my refinery!

Aside from having unilaterally kicked every foreign energy company out of Bolivia, now president Evo Morales has appropriated all the equipment they left behind.

The biggest noisemaker of the bunch is Petrobras, the Brazilian company that lost the most when Morales nationalized Bolivia's resources. But in the fine print at the bottom of most articles, you will notice that ExxonMobil also was expelled.

Not only that, but Morales has firmed up ties to both Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as well as Fidel Castro, and the three have been trading money, energy, and politics.

I'm not sure what's going to happen with this, but I'm fascinated by the left-wing movement growing in Central and South America that Morales and Chavez embody, especially because most of the stories that run in the mainstream media don't talk about how incredibly popular both men have become in their own countries because of their socialist agendas and all they've done for their people.

Still, I give Morales about six months til there's a coup attempt. Most likely backed by the CIA. I'm serious. They tried it with Chavez in 2002, but he was only out of office for three days before a popular movement forced his successor to step down. The same might happen with Morales, or the CIA might figure it's too dangerous a move, but given our history of treating Latin America like our own personal backyard, I doubt it. They'll probably at least try something.

And the reason I say six months is because that's about how long ExxonMobil has to get out of Bolivia. Cheers, matey!

I feel like some fish 'n chips. Thanks, BBC, and grab me some extra tartar sauce, will you?