President-Elect Evo Morales will travel Tuesday to Venezuela for a brief visit with President Hugo Chávez and initiate, from Caracas, an announced tour that will take him to Spain as well as other countries, informed his spokesperson Alex Contreras on Sunday.
Contreras said that the acceptance of the invitation "has been finalized and, on the 3rd of January, instead of traveling directly to Madrid Evo will go to Caracas to meet with President Chávez".
He clarified that the foreseen itinerary, which includes visits to Spain, France, Belgium, South Africa, China and Brazil will remain intact, the only change is that Morales will leave hours earlier than planned, on Tuesday, in order to meet with Chávez at Miraflores Palace.
Morales returned Saturday from Cuba after a visit to President Fidel Castro: his first trip outside the country after being elected president by a clear 53.7% majority in elections held on 18 December.
Contreras said that the trip to Caracas is in response to Chavez’ request, who communicated with Morales during his visit to Havana Friday and Saturday.
He stated that Morales, accompanied only by Contreras himself and Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Toward Socialism, MAS) economist Carlos Villegas, will arrive in Caracas around 10.00 (14.00 GMT) on Tuesday, and will continue on to Madrid around 16.00 (20.00 GMT) after meeting with Chávez.
He announced that Chávez has offered Morales, as soon as he assumes power in Bolivia, to put at his service the technology and human resources of the Venezuelan government as necessary to initiate a large-scale identification campaign in the rural sectors of Bolivia, financed by Venezuela.
"It’s going to be a very important identification campaign… that will be supported by the Venezuelan government. We know that in the rural areas many people don’t vote, because they have no documentation of identity", he indicated.
Once in Madrid, Morales and his collaborators will continue on to France on the 5th, where they will meet with Jacques Chirac. On the 6th they will travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with authorities of the European Union.
Contreras indicated that a projected visit to Holland was suspended, because on the 6th Morales and his entourage must depart for South Africa, where they will meet with the former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, and current President, Thabo Mbeki.
On the 9th Morales will head for China, were he will meet with President Hu Jintao, staying for 3 days.
From there he will continue his tour to Brazil to meet with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the 13th, and then returning home to La Paz, said Contreras.
Morales will receive the reigns of the country from President Eduardo Rodríguez on the 22nd of January.
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