Brasília, 15/10/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Brazilian army spokesmen report that there have not been any changes in their state of readiness along the 700-kilometer border the country has with Bolivia where a violent crisis has exploded. There are some 2,000 Brazilian soldiers on the border, members of the 17th Jungle Infantry Brigade stationed in Porto Velho, Rondonia; the 18th Border Infantry Brigade stationed in Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul; and the 13th Motorized Infantry Brigade stationed in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso. .
Since mid-September protesters in Bolivia have been calling for the resignation of president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Recently the protests have become more violent, with more than 50 deaths reported, causing concern in Brazil where the Ministry of Foreign Relations and army intelligence units have been closely following the situation.
On Tuesday, president Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva spoke on the telephone with Sanchez de Lozada and told him of that concern. Bolivia has Latin America's second biggest natural gas reserves and is a strategic partner for Brazil. The two countries have a controversial natural gas contract which is presently in a delicate phase of renegotiation. That contract calls for Brazil to purchase 30 million cubic meters of natural gas per day for the next 20 years. The problem is that at the moment Brazil only needs half of the gas it could import from Bolivia (total domestic consumption is around 29 million cubic meters daily, of which 15 million cubic meters is being supplied by Bolivia). The gas is transported to Brazil through a pipeline that cost the Brazilian government R$6 billion.
The protests now underway in Bolivia are because of another natural gas contract that would transport gas to a port in Chile and then export it to the United States. Opposition to the deal is fierce with protesters demanding the gas be used domestically where 250,000 Bolivian homes do not have any gas.
CONCERN IN CONGRESS
Although the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and Petrobrás, report that the flow of natural gas from Bolivia to Brazil has not been affected by the demonstrations because the protest is concerned with new export contracts, worries about the situation in Bolivia have also reached congress. Deputy Perpétua Almeida (PC do B - AC) points out that her state (Acre) is negotiating commercial contracts with various South American countries. "Things are moving ahead with Peru, but with Bolivia we are going to be forced to suspend talks," she declared, adding that the Brazil-Bolivia Parliamentary Front should be activated to look into the situation and how it could affect bilateral relations. (AB)
