CARACAS, Wednesday September 17, 2008 | Update
Politics
The Bolivian Armed Forces have asked President Evo Morales
to notify through the corresponding diplomatic channels their
discomfort by the statements of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez about an eventual Venezuelan military intervention
in Bolivia.
In a letter addressed to David Choquehuanca, Bolivia's Minister
of Foreign Affairs, disclosed on Wednesday, the head of the
Armed Forces, General Luis Trigo, expressed his "strong and
categorical rejection against foreign intervention in domestic
affairs of any kind and wherever it comes from," EFE reported.
The Venezuelan President has said time after time that if
Morales is overthrown or assassinated in the wave of the protests
and clashes that affect the Bolivian territory, he would support
any armed movement to defend the elected President.
General Trigo, who had already criticized public Chávez’s
“intervention” in the internal affairs of Bolivia, formalized
with this letter to the Foreign Minister his request “to take
the relevant diplomatic measures to express the Bolivian military
indignation.”
According to Trigo, Chávez’s statements “deeply affect
the dignity and integrity” of the military institution.
“The president of Venezuela is making repeated statements
against the command of the Bolivian armed forces, attacking
the monolithic unity and cohesion of our institution and doubting
about the institutional role that we fulfill as a stronghold
of democracy” said the letter signed by Gen. Trigo.
Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas
01:11 PM.
Economy.
Domestic inflation rate in Venezuela was 1.7 percent in January, at the same rate as in December 2009, despite currency devaluation at the start of the year decreed by President Hugo Chávez, a senior government source told Reuters on Tuesday.