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LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - The minister leading Bolivia's efforts to nationalize Bolivia's oil and gas operations resigned Friday after his government backed down in a dispute with Brazil's state-run energy company, the industry's biggest investor.
Andres Soliz stepped down a day after Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said Bolivia was suspending a measure — decreed by Soliz two days earlier — that would have exerted nearly total control over foreign extraction and refining of Bolivian natural gas and oil.
Brazil's state-run oil giant Petrobras had responded angrily to the decree by Soliz, with its chief executive Sergio Gabrielli canceling a trip to Bolivia for high-level meetings aimed at resolving the escalating dispute.
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