The Venezuelan Embassy to Bolivia Tuesday "forcefully" rejected
the Bolivian opposition's claims that it was involved in a
bomb attack against an anti-Evo Morales television channel
last June 21.
In a communiqué published by the Bolivian press, the
Venezuelan Embassy, headed by Ambassador Julio Montes, branded
the accusation as "malicious" and "groundless."
"These claims come as part of a systematic international
smear campaign encouraged by the US administration against
our revolution and the people of the Americas that have chosen
the way of unity and sovereignty," the statement reads, as
quoted by Efe.
Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga, the leader of opposition
Podemos party, which holds a majority in the Bolivian Senate,
claimed the Venezuelan Embassy to Bolivia rented the car from
which explosives were thrown at Unitel television channel
and provided the logistics and the explosives used in the
attack.
The attack took place early last June 21 in the border town
of Yacuiba, south Bolivia, ahead of a vote on the autonomy
of Tarija region.
The Venezuelan Embassy Tuesday stressed it only supports
the implementation of the agreements entered into under the
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the Peoples'
Free Trade Agreement (TCP).
Venezuela's financial aid to Bolivia, as Morales himself
disclosed recently, exceeds USD 100 million in several programs.
"No malicious anti-Latin America, anti-Venezuela campaign,
trick or tall story by the sectors that are fighting against
the unity of the peoples of the Americas" will ever deter
Venezuela from accompanying Bolivia "in its path toward ultimate
liberation."