Ahmadinejad to Visit Latin America

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Brazil next week during the Rio+20 summit and will meet world leaders on the sidelines of the gathering on sustainable development on 20-22 June. He would then visit Bolivia and Venezuela. In Caracas, he will have a brief meeting with the ailing president Hugo Chavez.

Iran Invites Latin American Leaders to Attend NAM Summit in Tehran

An Iranian delegation headed by Second Vice President Ali Saeedlou has wrapped up a tour of Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador, extending presidential invitations to their leaders to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran.

The NAM summit is scheduled for 26-31 August. Iran currently holds the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Saeedlou told IRNA that Iran was forming strong alliance with the five Latin American countries he toured. Venezuela will host the next summit in 2015. 

Iran Defense Minister Visits Bolivia, Causing Controversy

Iran’s Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi today visited Bolivia to inaugurate a military academy that was built with Iran's help. The Bolivian government soon received a notice from Argentina that the general was wanted by that country for being the alleged mastermind of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires and was subject to an Interpol red notice issued in 2007. The Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca told reporters that he informed his Argentine counterpart that at the request of the Bolivian government the Iranian defense minister cut his trip short and has since left Bolivia.

"I want to express in the name of the Government of Bolivia my deepest apologies (to Argentina)," said Choquehuanca in a letter sent to the Argentine foreign minister and published by news agencies [AP, 31 May]. "As a result of this regrettable situation, the government of Bolivia has taken the corresponding provisions to see to it that Ahmad Vahidi immediately leaves Bolivian territory," the letter said.