MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil full support for Morales and warns Bolivian “terrorists”

Lula da Silva no nonsense policy with constitutional rupture

Brazil will not accept any attempt to overthrow the government in Bolivia as opposition protests spiral into deadly clashes with government supporters, the Brazilian president's foreign policy adviser said on Thursday.

"We won't tolerate a rupture in the constitutional order of Bolivia" Marco Aurelio Garcia, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva foreign policy advisor told a news conference. "Brazil will not recognize any attempt at a government that would substitute a constitutional government in Bolivia" Garcia said when asked whether this meant Brazil would send troops to aid the Bolivian government of President Evo Morales. Brazil has supported President Morales' administration as the legitimate, constitutional government in Bolivia and has repeatedly condemned the violence which has left at least nine dead. Garcia said President Morales was prepared to receive emissaries from Brazil, Argentina and Colombia and only needed to say when. Garcia said Brazil's view was that destabilizing the country "could cause great damage" to the region and branded the protesters' actions as "terrorism". Morales told Lula da Silva he was "pessimistic" about the progress of talks with the opposition, but Bolivia had overcome serious crises before and could do so again, Garcia said. "We hope that faced with these problems a solution can be found to avoid the hypothesis of a civil war" he said. Rioters managed to disrupt on separate occasions the flow of Bolivian natural gas to Argentina and Brazil. Brazil's strong support followed reports that Bolivia's ambassador to the United States, Gustavo Guzman, was called to the US State Department earlier Thursday and ordered to leave the country to reciprocate for Bolivia expelling the US ambassador. The move came after Morales said Wednesday that US Ambassador Philip Goldberg is persona non grata in Bolivia, and asked his foreign minister to send a note to the American legate asking that he leave the country. Goldberg was accused of inciting anti-government protesters, although Morales offered no specific evidence.