Petrobras (PETR3; PETR4) and YPFB sign transition agreement whereby Bolivian company will continue to export natural gas to Brazil until March 10, 2020

Petrobras announced today that it has signed a Transition Agreement under the natural gas supply contract with Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB). Under the new agreement, the gas supply will be adopted a transition period from January 1 to March 10, 2020, in Bolivia's gas supply.

Until then, Petrobras and YPFB will "continue the negotiation process with the aim of changing certain trading conditions, in line with the opening process of the Brazilian natural gas market and the new Bolivian market context", according to the note published by the Brazilian state-owned company.

The crisis in Bolivia, which led to the overthrow of the government of Evo Morales, now in exile in Mexico, altered the negotiations between Brazil and Bolivia. Now, who is negotiating with Brazil is Bolivia's Hydrocarbon Minister, Victor Hugo Zamora, who is in Rio de Janeiro for talks with Brazilian authorities.

Bolsonaro and Evo Morales were in diametrically opposed ideological fields. Now, with the arrival of military and evangelicals in Bolivia, after a coup d'état, Brazil and Bolivia now have two governments that are very similar. Both in Brazil and Bolivia, who commands today are religious rights very close to the military forces of both countries.

It is also good to remember that 83% of the gas that Brazil imports come from Bolivia.

Without government, Bolivia experiences chaos and violence; Evo Morales seeks asylum in Mexico

President Evo Morales's resignation has left Bolivia plunged into a wave of violence that has led police in La Paz to declare unable to guarantee public safety and ask the military for help. At night Evo announced that he was leaving for Mexico, which offered him asylum. With the resignation of the president, the deputy and the leaders of the House and Senate, the presidency would be with Jeanine Áñez, second vice president of the Senate.

One day after resigning the presidency of Bolivia, Evo Morales asked Mexico for asylum, as leaders negotiated a constitutional solution to the impasse by calling elections. Congress must meet today and try to remedy the power vacuum. Clashes continue to take place in La Paz. 

According to the newspaper O Globo, Bolivia's far-right Christian fundamentalist opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho asks for help to Brazil's far-right Christian fundamentalist run a foreign ministry to ask for help to stop now-ousted leader Evo Morales.

Meanwhile, in Bolivia, conflicts are becoming increasingly violent. Bolivia's Mayor of Vinto Patricia Arce, affiliated with President Evo Morales's party, has been subjected to a series of violence that reflects the practices of totalitarian state torture and gender-based political violence in Latin America. She had her hair cut forcibly and was covered in a red dye and forced to walk barefoot for miles after a rally of opponents to Evo Morales. 

Busy weekend in Latin America, with Lula out of prison in Brazil and Evo Morales resigning from office in Bolivia; Brazilian financial market reacts badly, Bovespa falls and the dollar opens in fall in Brazil this Monday

The crisis in Bolivia, Lula's exit from prison and infrastructure projects are the main issues in Brazilian newspapers this Monday. The State of Sao Paulo states that Evo and three others in the power line resign in Bolivia; Globo publishes that Evo Morales resigns under protests and military pressure and Correio Braziliense reports that Evo Morales resigns and Bolivia is left without government; according to Folha de S.Paulo says that Lula will start a series of trips around the country starting in Pernambuco, in the Brazilian Northeast; and Valor Econômico reports that only 6% of cities meet basic sanitation goals.

Pressured by opponents, police, and military, Evo Morales left Bolivia's presidency after nearly 14 years in power. After he left power, there was a cascading departure from the authorities that formed the constitutional succession line. This has created an unknown about who will take over the government in the country.

Lula

According to the president of Cebrap (Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning) and philosophy professor at Unicamp (State University of Campinas), Marcos Nobre states that with the release of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the country's political scenario changes completely. For him, the PT, Lula's party, should present an opposition program to President Jair Bolsonaro.

Former President Lula has said he will oppose the government of Jair Bolsonaro. That means new pressure movements on the already weakened government. Lula represents a larger organization of the opposition to the government, which until now was disorganized. Since the government of Jair Bolsonaro has great difficulty defending its theses in the Brazilian Congress, the reinforcement and reorganization of the opposition could make even more difficult the economic change projects proposed by the current government.

Basic sanitation in Brazil

Meanwhile, in Brazil, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper, only 6% of Brazilian cities meet the basic sanitation goals of the new sanitation legal framework. Of the 5,570 Brazilian cities, only 343 already have a sanitation coverage rate above 90% for water supply and 60% for sewage collection and treatment.