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Monday, October 22, 2007

Venezuelan, Cuban offices attacked in Bolivia

Venezuelan, Cuban offices attacked in Bolivia

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Unknown assailants tossed sticks of dynamite
early Monday at the Venezuelan consulate in the eastern Bolivian city of
Santa Cruz, while others hurled Molotov cocktails at a residence housing
Cuban doctors, government officials said.

No one was injured, and the explosions caused only minor damage.

The attacks remain under investigation, said Col. Enrique Urquidi, Santa
Ctuz director of the Bolivian national police.

"We condemn these type of violent, cowardly actions designed to create a
climate of tension, anxiety and terror in the country -- a climate we do
not believe exists," said presidential spokesman Alex Contreras.

A center of rightist opposition to President Evo Morales, Santa Cruz
chafes at his close ties to leftist governments in Venezuela and Cuba
and is pushing for greater autonomy from his government.

Some international flights to Santa Cruz's airport, Bolivia's busiest,
were grounded last week in a heated dispute between local authorities
and the Morales administration over landing fees.

Last year, anti-Morales factions in Santa Cruz fired gunshots at the
home of a government minister and offices of nonprofit groups
sympathetic to his administration.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/10/22/bolivia.explosions.ap/index.html

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