Bolivian army disappointed at Chavez's meddling

 

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