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Perhaps I am misunderstanding you, but the sovereignty of THE PEOPLE has been a hard fought for principle of democracy--sovereignty over the East India Company and the mighty British Empire, for instance, in our own revolution, or, in the case of Latin America, sovereignty visa vis Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Bechtel, Monsanto, Dyncorp, Chiquita, the World Bank/IMF loan sharks, et al, and against U.S. topplings of democratic governments and support of fascist dictators, in the interest of these multinational corporations, and sovereignty in regard to the arrogant, militaristic, corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs."
We would do well to pull Exxon Mobil's corporate charter, dismantle the corporation and seize its assets for the public good. Instead, we stood helplessly by as Exxon Mobil and brethren hijacked the U.S. military for a corporate resource war.
Sovereignty of THE PEOPLE is a very, very important issue in Latin America. We have pretty much lost ours--even unto the very counting of our votes, which is now conducted largely by ONE, far rightwing-connected, private corporation (ES&S, which just bought out Diebold), with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code and virtually no audit/recount controls. Latin Americans are seeking to establish their sovereignty--for instance with long hard work on honest, aboveboard, transparent elections--the key to the power of the people--the election of real representatives of the people, and their assertion of sovereign power, visa vis Exxon Mobil, for instance, in Venezuela, Bechtel Corp, in Bolivia and Dyncorp (the U.S. military base) in Ecuador.
Sovereignty is so fundamental to the leftist democracy movement in Latin America, and so critically important to social justice, that perhaps you missed the ways in which the BBC tries to undermine it in this article--for instance, its use of the phrased "controversially seized." It is not controversial in Bolivia, except to the corpo-fascist press and the small, rich, white separatist minority which tried to topple the democratically elected and hugely popular Morales government, with U.S. help, back in September 2008. That bloody insurrection was all about handing Bolivia's rich natural resources over to multinational corporations, with Bolivia's rich elite skimming off the top and neglecting and oppressing the poor majority. Multinational corporations, with the U.S. doing the leg work, actively seek to undermine and destroy the sovereignty of the people in third world countries. We are now a "third world" country, too, in many respects, and are seeing the ravages of predatory capitalism, with the rich getting richer and the rest of us becoming slave labor and "cannon fodder" if we are lucky enough to even have a job. We have seen corporations become monsters, living forever and gobbling up land and wealth--and then dictating to the government that was founded "of, by and for" the people but is now "of, by and for" the corporations, the war profiteers and the super-rich.
Again, maybe I misunderstood your phrase "we may not like it" (i.e., we may not like the sovereignty of the people any more). Perhaps you were thinking of a corrupt government using "eminent domain" to seize small properties--say, peoples' homes--say, for a freeway or other development that serves big business and big contractors, has not been democratically decided in any true sense and is conducted without fair compensation. We tend to think of individuals as monarchs in their domain--kings, queens of their homes, gardens, farms, small businesses--a faulty but understandable concept which tries to transfer sovereignty from big time kings and queens in "old Europe" to "the little guy." It is faulty in that the transfer of power is collective, not individual. We collectively declared our sovereignty, as A PEOPLE, over and against the old sovereignties (and their financial and trade cartels). AS A PEOPLE, we own the land, and we COLLECTIVELY decide on its use. We give permission for some of it to be privately owned; we regulate its use even when privately owned (for instance, environmental, health and building regulations); and we preserve some of it for parks, green belts, wildlife preserves, roads, ports, schools, hospitals, government buildings, etc. We also permit corporate businesses to be chartered (by the states--a rather big but understandable mistake of our Founders) and to "own" land, although they are not individuals, theoretically for the public good. That latter concept--the public good--has gone by the wayside, as to big wealthy corporations, and they now have far more rights than we the people do (something that out Founders would have been appalled at). They control the government and when the government takes and misuses our property--for instance, collecting taxes from us for unjust war and to enrich banksters and war profiteers--we have no recourse.
Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela are trying to rebalance their economies and governments in favor of "the people." From everything that I have read and researched, they are doing this very democratically. Their leaders are genuine representatives of the majority. They are not particularly radical--more like "New Dealers." And they are seeking to enforce the sovereignty of the people against U.S. interference, against multinational corporate interference, against often U.S. instigated fascist coups by local elites and against the wishes of corporate tools like the BBC--which has become as bad as Rotters, the Associated Pukes, the New York Slimes and the Miami Hairball, on Latin American issues.
Latin America is not only viewed as "our backyard" in Washington DC, it is viewed as major plundering ground by English and European multinationals and super-rich investors. These entities are very upset at the assertion of sovereignty of the people in Latin America, and they lie through their teeth trying to portray this phenomenon as tyranny. It is not. It is a rightful assertion of people power against private corporate power. It is the essence of democracy. It is not "controversial" to the vast poor majorities in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, where the democracy revolution in Latin America is strongest.
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