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Blog de Francesco Zaratti

Between Self-Defense and Revenge

The conviction of an Italian jeweler for killing two fleeing robbers underscores the contentious divide between self-defense and vigilante justice. By ruling that his disproportionate use of force constituted a crime rather than protection, the court emphasized that maintaining the rule of law requires rejecting extrajudicial retaliation, a principle that serves as a vital, if challenging, benchmark for both personal conduct and global geopolitical stability.

Mario Argollo and Donald Trump: Parallel (Wasted) Lives

There is a critical parallel between Mario Argollo, leader of the Central Obrera Boliviana, and Donald Trump, in that both have undertaken destructive social and geopolitical conflicts driven by questionable motivations and using similar strategies. After failing in their initial objectives and encountering unexpected resistance, both figures are seeking a negotiated exit to preserve their own political survival in the face of the attrition of their respective conflicts.

The Thucydides Trap and Bolivian Politics

The Graham Allison’s “Thucydides Trap”—the historical tendency for established powers to clash with rising ones— is applied to analyze contemporary challenges in Bolivia, specifically regarding political governance and the energy transition.

The Perfect Storm for YPFB: Between Internal Sabotage and Global Chaos

Bolivia stands at a crossroads: caught between YPFB’s inefficiency and a global crisis pushing crude oil to $100, Rodrigo Paz’s government faces the dilemma of choosing between the hunger of inflation or the plague of a deficit. With no strategic reserves or foreign currency, the only real way out is aggressive energy diplomacy and a gradual transition toward renewable sources to break the dependency on hydrocarbons.

Four Years of Energy Terror

In the war sparked by the invasion of Ukraine four years ago, Russia employs energy terror by destroying the Ukrainian power grid, causing massive blackouts and a humanitarian crisis in -20°C winters. Ukraine responds with drones targeting Russian refineries, reducing oil production and worsening their fiscal deficit. Energy is a human basic need; energy terror should be outlawed as a crime against.

Welcome denialism!

With the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, a political earthquake has been generated that has its aftershocks in the energy field. To the cry of “Drill, baby, drill”, regulations, decades-long policies to diversify the energy matrix and global goals to reduce the disastrous effects of growing greenhouse gas emissions have been ignored. […]

Lithium contracts: a desperate bet

This column is a general analysis on the Lithium contract for YLB, the nacional lithium corporation, with Uranium One Goup, a Russia Based company.

“Hic et nunc” against anti-logic

The asylum granted by Spain to Edmundo Gonzales Urrutia (EGU) – in reality a self-exile of the winner of the Venezuelan elections – has once again shaken the floor of Spanish-speaking politicians and activists. I will not deal with the reactions of the radicals who would have preferred to have a hero in their pantheon, […]