Bolivia nationalises Iberdrola electricity distributors Bolivia's leftwing President, Evo Morales, has nationalised two electricity distribution companies, owned by Spain's Iberdrola. On Saturday, during a public appearance at the Presidential Palace in the country's capital, La Paz, Mr Morales signed a decree allowing for the takeover of Empresa de Electricidad de La Paz, or Electropaz, and Empresa de Luz y Fuerza de Oruro, or Elfeo. IN European Companies "We considered this measure necessary to ensure equitable energy tariffs ... and to see to it that the quality of electricity service is uniform in rural as well as urban areas," Mr Morales said after signing the decree. According to eyewitnesses, Iberdrola's office in the country's capital, La Paz, was being guarded by police officers. Some of the companies" facilities were marked with signs reading "nationalised." Mr Morales said the Spanish company would be compensated according to a valuation performed by an independent arbiter, to be done within the next 180 days. The move is seen as aimed at enhancing energy services in rural areas of the impoverished Andean nation, particularly in the areas of La Paz and Oruro, by a president who has been giving sweeping rights to the country's long-marginalised indigenous majority. This is the latest in a series of setbacks for foreign companies operating in Bolivia, a country with a historical penchant for resource nationalism. Mr Morales" indigenous power base has been increasingly pressuring the government to take a bigger role in the management of the country's resources. Iberdrola has operated in Bolivia since the late 1990s, yet the current perception is that privatisations during those years were bad for the country. Since coming to power in January 2006, Bolivia's first indigenous president has renationalised the country's hydrocarbons industry and telecommunications as well as the four largest electricity generators, belonging to France's GDF Suez and UK-based Rurelec in 2010. In late June this year, the government revoked the Colquiri tin and zinc mining licence of Sinchi Wayra, a wholly owned subsidiary of London-listed commodities trader Glencore. In May, Mr Morales sent armed troops to take over an electrical utilities company, Transportadora de Electricidad, owned by another Spanish energy group, Red Eléctrica, which controlled 75 per cent of energy transmission in the Andean country.