MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian government promises neighbouring countries to return thousands of stolen cars

Over 120.000 cars have been smuggled, most of them stolen, into Bolivia

The Bolivian government promised to call the ambassadors from neighbouring countries to define a legal framework that allows the devolution of thousands of cars stolen in their countries and which found their way to the landlocked country.

“The Foreign Affairs minister will be summoning in coming days the ambassadors to agree on a legal framework. The proposal will be put to consideration of the ambassadors”, said a release from the Bolivian government.

The statement follows claims from Chile that is demanding the return of 1.500 cars stolen in its cities and which the Bolivian police discovered during a process to legalize allegedly undocumented vehicles last year.

“The Bolivian government’s decision is to return those cars, but in the case of Chile we don’t have a legal framework to enable the devolution” said Consuelo Ponce, spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs ministry.

“We are considering appealing to the Inter American Convention on Mutual Assistance on Criminal affairs to facilitate the return of these cars to their original countries”, added Ponce.

The Bolivian government did not reveal the number of stolen vehicles in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Peru that have been found in its territory. However during the amnesty process to legalize undocumented vehicles which were smuggled into Bolivia, the Customs Office received over 120.000 requests.