TARIJA (Bolivia): Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez aimed on Friday to strengthen economic ties with energy-rich allies Bolivia and Ecuador and key energy consumer Argentina, which is struggling through an unusually cold winter.
The leftist leaders of Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina came together in southern Bolivia the day after Mr. Chavez offered to help Ecuador build a $5 billion oil refinery.
Regional tour
Mr. Chavez is on a four-country regional tour, seeking to expand his nation’s influence by leveraging its vast oil reserves and create a “grand South American alliance” to counter U.S. influence. Morales and Kirchner on Friday finalised a $450 million deal to build a gas separation plant near in southern Bolivia near the Argentine border.
Together with a gas pipeline already in the works, the plant will help Bolivia sell its neighbour some $16 billions worth of natural gas to Argentina over the next 20 years, according to a deal the two countries signed last year. — AP
