Bolivia to Nationalize Top Phone Company

Entel will be the latest in a string of nationalizations under Morales.

In May, the president issued a surprise decree nationalizing Bolivia's oil and gas industry. Foreign oil companies were eventually permitted to remain in the country after granting the government a larger share of their revenues and ceding control of their Bolivian operations to the state.

In January, Morales wrapped up long-running negotiations in the nationalization of Aguas de Illimani, the La Paz water utility sold to French transnational Suez SA in 1997.

Morales nationalized a tin smelter owned by the Swiss mining company Glencore International AG the following month, and he has expressed his desire to exert more control over Bolivia's mining industry.