Venezuela and Bolivia Sign 13 Bilateral Agreements

Orinoco Tribune, April 21, 2023 —

Caracas, April 20, 2023 (OrinocoTribune.com)—The president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Luis Arce, arrived in Venezuela on Thursday and signed 13 new bilateral agreements that will serve to strengthen the strategic alliance between both nations.

Arce was received with a military parade this Thursday, April 20, by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, La Guaira state. “We welcome the president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Luis Arce, brother and ally of our people,” Gil announced via social media, “with whom we will sign new cooperation agreements within the framework of the Third Venezuela-Bolivia Joint Integration Commission.”

Meeting with Vice President Delcy Rodríguez
President Arce also held a meeting with Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, addressing issues of common interest. “We appreciate the welcome from our sister, the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez,” Arce wrote via social media, “with whom we reaffirm our historic revolutionary struggle for the sovereignty, dignity, and development of our peoples. Jallalla la Patria Grande!”

After the meeting with Rodríguez, Arce paid tribute to the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, at the National Pantheon in Caracas. He was accompanied by Minister for Foreign Affairs Yván Gil, with whom he delivered a floral offering to the Liberator.

13 agreements
President Arce was received at Miraflores Palace in the afternoon of this Thursday by President Nicolás Maduro and members of his cabinet, in order to sign bilateral agreements in the various areas within the framework of the Third Venezuela-Bolivia Joint Integration Commission.

Below are the agreements signed by both nations, as reported by Últimas Noticias:

• Cooperation agreement for the protection, conservation, recovery, and restitution of cultural heritage assets, which have been the subject of robbery, theft, looting, export, import, transport, transfer, traffic, and/or illicit marketing.
• Memorandum of understanding on educational matters between the Ministry for Education of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Ministry of Education of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
• Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry for Interior Relations, Justice, and Peace of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency of the Plurinational State of Bolivia on cooperation in justice matters.
• Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry for Health of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Ministry of Health and Sports of the Plurinational State of Bolivia for cooperation in health training.
• Memorandum of understanding for cooperation in mining matters between the Ministry for Ecological Mining Development of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
• Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry for National Commerce of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Ministry of Productive Development and Plural Economy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
• Memorandum of understanding on academic cooperation between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
• Memorandum of understanding between the Ministry for Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia on trade strengthening.
• Memorandum of understanding between the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN) and the Bolivian Information Agency (ABI).
• Agreement between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Plurinational State of Bolivia for cooperation on hydrocarbons (oil).
• Agreement on air services between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
• Memorandum of understanding between the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Plurinational State of Bolivia for cooperation in gas matters.
• Reliability agreement regarding PDVSA Gas and Bolivian fiscal oil fields.

“More than memoranda of understanding, these 13 documents are evidence of sworn commitments between our peoples to launch a new stage of joint work, union, and integration between our sister nations of Bolivia and Venezuela,” President Maduro stated, particularly noting the importance of signing new agreements in the area of ​​the petrochemical and gas industry.

Venezuela officially has the eighth biggest gas reserve in the world, and, after recent certification and development, might soon have the third or fourth biggest gas reserve. “The advances of the Bolivian gas industry in recent years are admirable,” Maduro added. “We must learn from them.”

President Maduro also urged guaranteeing the immediate deployment of an alliance between the Bolivian Aviation Company (BoA) and the Venezuelan Aviation Company Conviasa, “in order to fly through South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and the rest of the world.” The goal is to be able to unite destinations, airports, and air capacities of both nations, as specified by the Venezuelan head of state and his counterpart from Bolivia.

“We held an important meeting with our brother, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro,” President Arce announced via social media. “Today more than ever, it is necessary to strengthen our bonds of cooperation and unity, in defense of the sovereignty and wellbeing of our peoples.”

During the ceremony, Arce noted that the signing of these agreements represents a restart of the bilateral and strategic relations between both countries. “We want for Venezuela to feel that it has not just a big ally in Bolivia, but also an strategic ally, for the wellbeing of both our peoples.”

Simón Bolívar’s sword
During the ceremony, President Maduro delivered a replica of the sword of Simón Bolívar to his counterpart from the Bolivia. “This sword that I have given you is for the force of revolution, with the revolutionary dignity of our Liberator, for the battles that he had to fight for the happiness of the people of Bolivia,” Maduro said. “Go with that force, President Luis Arce, with the original force of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, for the battles that you are going to fight, for the victories that you are going to achieve.”

“Now, we are going to advance without stopping,” continued the Venezuelan president, “and we are going to weave the network in the spirit of the peoples of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP), in the spirit of the Community of States Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to rebuild the spirit of the union of our Caribbean America, where Venezuela and Bolivia are at the forefront of building a new world and envisioning an alternative model to savage neoliberal capitalism; an alternative model where the people are the protagonists, and hold the power.”