bolivia political risk .. real or imagined

I'm just wondering whether fears of Bolivian political risk has reached a hysterical level that belies reality.

This was released less than 24 hours ago by Golden Eagle:

Golden Eagle Confirms that New Presidential Mining Decree Protects Bolivian Gold and Copper Projects
SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Golden Eagle International, Inc. (OTCBB: MYNG) announced today that on May 1, 2007 Bolivian President Evo Morales signed Presidential Decree 29117 assuring that all mining concessions existing at the time of that Decree will be respected and will remain in effect, including Golden Eagle’s 136,500-acre Precambrian landholding in eastern Bolivia. The Company’s Precambrian landholding hosts the Buen Futuro A Zone VMS gold and copper project with an estimated 172,000 troy ounces of gold and 267 million pounds of copper in mineralized material, as well as the Ascension VMS Gold-Copper Trend that strikes for 21 miles on the property.

That landholding also hosts Golden Eagle’s smaller C Zone eluvial gold project on which the Company has operated a pilot recovery plant for the past 7 months testing the mineralized material within the C Zone estimated to contain 9,300 troy ounces of gold in a small, well-defined portion of the explored area. Trenching to confirm exploration results to date on the Company’s C Zone, in addition to further exploration to expand the estimated gold in the mineralized material, are ongoing.

“We are glad to see this very important confirmation from the Bolivian president that existing mining concessions will be respected in every regard,” stated Mac DeLozier, Golden Eagle’s VP for Bolivian Operations. “Our review of President Morales’ Decree with our legal advisors underscores our belief that the current administration wants to do everything that it can to ensure security in the Bolivian mining sector for existing mining concessions and operating mines.”

The Presidential Decree 29117 of May 1, 2007 also designated all unclaimed mineral resources within the national territory as a Mining Fiscal Reserve to be administered by Bolivia’s national mining company, COMIBOL. As indicated above, this portion of the decree does not interfere in any respect with any mining concession existing at the time of the decree, and in fact reinforces those privately-held rights as inviolable.

Golden Eagle also noted other signs of progress in Bolivia with the legalization last week of 44 contracts regarding oil and gas production between Bolivia and the 12 transnational oil and gas companies operating in Bolivia, including: Spain’s Repsol, Brazil’s Petrobras, France’s Total, Britain’s BP and British Gas, as well as Exxon/Mobil. These transnational oil and gas companies have committed to invest an additional $3 billion over the next five years in the development of Bolivia’s natural gas reserves that are the second-largest in South America.

Full article at http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070508005785&newsLang=en