The president of the Bolivian legislature's defense committee,
Javier Zabaleta, dismissed on Tuesday press reports that Bolivia
and Venezuela planned to attack neighboring states.
Bolivia and Venezuela signed a military cooperation pact on May
26, under which Venezuela agreed to set up 20 military bases on
Bolivia's borders with Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and
Chile.
Since the weekend, press reports in Chile, Peru and Paraguay
have said that these nations are worried by the military buildup on
their borders.
Recent construction "does not mean that Bolivia is building up
its capacity for war, as people are wrongly seeking to show,"
Zabaleta said.
Under the accord, the two nations plan to set up a port terminal
in Puerto Quijarro, a base for the Engineers Regiment in Ixiamas,
and a military fort in Riberalta.
All of these were mainly intended to help the fight against drug
trafficking, he said, adding that Venezuela's help was mainly
academic and technological.
Walker San Miguel, Bolivia's defense minister, has told the
media that the measures were only intended to build trust and were
an extension of an existing 1998 pact and therefore, they are
little different from similar agreements between Bolivia and
Argentina and Peru.
The defense minister emphasized that the basic agreement between
Bolivia and Venezuela was first signed in 1973.
(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2006)
