MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ibero-american summit in spite of protests.

Bolivian Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Saavedra assured his Ibero-american colleagues that the current protests and unrest in Bolivia will have “no influence at all” over the next Ibero-american summit scheduled for November in Santa Cruz.

Although Bolivia is undergoing difficult moments, this will have no influence at all in the Santa Cruz summit. From a logistic point of view Santa Cruz is ready for the event", indicated Mr. Saavedra in direct reference to the indefinite general strike in Bolivia to protest the government's decision to export natural gas to the United States.

Mr. Saavedra revealed that the country's complicated social situation will be solved in the coming days with a round of discussions sponsored by President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and the "organization of a parallel summit".

"Come November and the summit will evolve with all guarantees for heads of state and government, and will turn into a success by itself", insisted Mr. Saavedra.

Latinamerican plus Spanish and Portuguese Foreign Affairs ministers met in Portugal to discuss proposals to make Ibero-american summits "more effective" and less "discursive".

Bolivian unions, with support from businessmen and peasants begun this Monday an indefinite strike to demand the government convene a referendum on the contract conditions for the sale of natural gas overseas. Protestors and Congressional opposition argue that according to current conditions Bolivia will only receive an 18% profit from the overall operation.

Strikers are also resisting one of the government's options to transport the natural gas: a pipeline crossing the north of Chile, a territory that once belonged to Bolivia. In 1879 Bolivia and Peru went to war with Chile and Bolivia ended loosing its Pacific ocean access and has since been landlocked.

Bolivia and Chile have had no diplomatic relations for the last twenty five years.