Iran has vowed to step up cooperation with Bolivia following this weekend’s talks between Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his “friend” Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce.
Raisi praised Arce for the Bolivian government’s “revolutionary and anti-imperialist” stance, and specifically mentioned Arce’s support for “Palestine” after the Arce administration. cut Japan will enter into all sorts of relations with Israel as a countermeasure to Israel’s self-defense operations against Iran’s jihadist terrorist organization Hamas. funds.
“Your passionate defense of Palestine will definitely be a good support for the people of this country,” Raisi said. Said Arce.
Raisi and Arce met in Algeria on Saturday on the sidelines of a summit of gas exporting countries. Iran’s presidential office said the “enhanced” cooperation plan includes trade, energy, technical services and agriculture.
The Iranian president also said that his country “has no obstacles to promoting cooperation with the Bolivian government, and economic and commercial relations between the two countries should grow and develop to the extent of political exchanges between the two countries.” .
In response, Arce said that Bolivia and Iran’s positions on international issues are “very close,” and maintained that the government’s view of Iran goes beyond the borders of the country: they are “friends and brothers.”
The socialist president called Israel’s self-defense operation a “genocide.” claimed Following Bolivia’s government’s decision to sever ties with Israel, Bolivia’s enemies inside and outside the country have “launched a propaganda campaign and psychological warfare” against the country, it said. Mr. Arce provided no examples of his propaganda or evidence for his claims.
En el marco de la VII Cumbre de Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno del Foro de Países #Iran, Ebrahim Raisi. Avanzamos is an important agenda for strategy and cooperation… pic.twitter.com/aQhpKYgFK2
— Luis Alberto Arce Catacola (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) March 2, 2024
Bolivia has dramatically increased its cooperation and relations with the Iranian regime over the past decade. Commenting on the growing relationship between the two countries, Joseph Umire, Executive Director of the Center for Safe and Free Societies (SFS), said: explain Bolivia has become Iran’s “most successful” project in the region in the Islamic regime’s decades-long plan to expand its influence in Latin America.
Iran began deepening its influence in Bolivia in 2007, thanks to the interest of Mr. Arce’s predecessor, the former socialist president. want to become Dictator Evo Morales.Mr. Morales is currently odds Arce has struggled to regain control of his Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, but that has not stopped Iran from increasing its influence in the South American country.
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales speaks during a press conference at the Journalists Club in Mexico City, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
In 2023, Bolivia signed the agreement. agreement During Bolivian Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo’s official visit to Tehran, he cooperated with the Islamic regime on the purchase of Iranian drones. Novillo and Iranian Mohammad Reza Ashtiani also signed Private Memorandum on Defense and Security.
The agreement quickly drew criticism from local opposition politicians and other regional governments. ArgentinaAt the time, it was led by President Alberto Fernandez of the Socialist Party.
A local Argentine-Israeli organization condemned Bolivia’s purchase of Iranian drones, which Iranian officials have widely condemned. involved The 1994 Argentine-Israel Mutual Association (AMIA) bombing killed 85 people. The AMIA bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere before September 11, 2001.
Humire said in a November 2023 report that Bolivia has received “nothing” from expanded cooperation with Iran. Rather, it is the ruling MAS party that benefits from the alliance.
“MAS has been working with Iran since the beginning, since the days of Evo Morales. They have tremendous support from Iran in all aspects of how they use this system to maintain power.” Humire said at the time. “Iran has been advising on how to deal with insurgency, how to militarize its borders, how to arm militias. On how to position itself as a regional actor vis-à-vis its neighbors. That point. And Iran is not important to Bolivia, but to MAS, which has a revolutionary aspect.”
Humire, new report A paper published in February argues that Iran’s growing influence is not limited to Bolivia, but that the Islamic regime is expanding its influence into Latin America as a result of its support for three dictatorships in the region (Cuba and Venezuela). He explained that he was able to do so. , Nicaragua, and other leftist governments elsewhere.
Christian K. Caruso is a Venezuelan writer who chronicles life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
