The Spanish Water Giant Writes Back

After more than three hundred Democracy Center readers e-mailed the Abengoa Corporation in Spain last week, demanding that the company join Bechtel in dropping its legal action against the people of Bolivia, the company has responded. Below is the letter from Abengoa’s chief lawyer (spelling errors and all).

The letter is stunning both for its ignorance and its arrogance. The corporation apparently doesn’t have a clue about what actually happened in Cochabamba, or even when (they think that the water revolt happened in 1999 when it actually happened in 2000). Bizarrely, they seem to think that the people writing from all over the world are ex-Bechtel employees. Abengoa is also threatening legal action against us if we continue to pressure them.

It is always amazing to me when big corporations are so stupid. The fact is that it is Abengoa and only Abengoa that is holding up an end to the case, according to the Bolivian government. I am preparing a response, which we’ll send by registered letter directly to the company’s chairmen and will post on our Web site. I am sure that the company’s top leaders will be interested to know how incompetently they are being represented by their lawyers.

Keep up the pressure on Abengoa!

LETTER FROM THE ABENGOA CORPORATION

Dear Sir,

We refer to your email of December 16 and wish to inform you that we disagree entirely with the content thereof, given that it is obvious that you are unaware of, and twist the reality of the events.

Therefore, we inform you that the Water Ssupply and Treatment Concession Contract for the city of Cochabamba and the participation of Misicuni in the project was awarded by the Bolivian Government in September 1999 to a company called Aguas del Tunari, in which Abengoa indirectly holds a 25% share, with the majority shareholder, with 55%, being Bechtel and the remaining shareholders being Bolivian companies.

As a consequence of the events that took place in Cochabamba late in 1999, the Bolivian Government unilaterally decided to expropriate the concession it had awarded to Aguas del Tunari and the signed contracts, and this caused a great damaged both Aguas del Tunari and its shareholders, and the determination thereof is foreseen in the aforementioned contracts.

Immediately after the expropriation, Aguas del Tunari made several attempts to reach an agreement with the Bolivian Government, and, upon none being reached, Aguas del Tunari presented the opportune claim at the time. Furthermore, at the present time, negotiations are still being held with the Bolivian Government to try to reach a friendly agreement.

As can be seen from the above, it is Aguas del Tunari, and not Abengoa, who has presented a claim against the Bolivian Government in defense of its legitimate interests, agreed and regulated in the contracts signed in September 1999, as a consequence of the expropriation of the concession and other contracts signed solely and exclusively of the Bolivian Government’s volition.

Finally, we would suggest that you refrain from conducting activities that might in any way prejudice this Company, to avoid us having to take any possible actions we might deem necessary.

Yours sincerely,

Miguel Ángel Jiménez-Velasco Mazarío
Legal Counsel