Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:51pm EDT
By Carlos Hugo Vaca
SANTA CRUZ, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Attackers threw sticks of dynamite at a
house next to the Venezuelan consulate and at a Cuban doctors' house in
the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz early on Monday, in what Bolivia and
Venezuela called terrorist acts.
The explosives thrown at the house next to the consulate blew a hole in
the roof of a room where children were sleeping at about 3 a.m. (0700
GMT), but Interior Minister Alfredo Rada said no one was wounded.
The attacks came at a time when the rightist opposition in eastern
Bolivia, and especially in Santa Cruz, has complained that leftist
President Evo Morales is forming too-close ties with Venezuela and Cuba,
which are major aid donors to South America's poorest country.
Rada called the explosions "terrorist acts" and Venezuelan Foreign
Minister Nicolas Maduro said in Caracas: "It was an attack by a group
that we will not hesitate to call terrorist."
Morales has formed close ties with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's
Fidel Castro since taking office in January 2006.
Cuba's ambassador to Bolivia said Monday's attack was not the first one.
"A month and a half ago there was a similar attack with a tear gas
grenade thrown against another house where Cuban doctors live ... this
is the second attack," Ambassador Rafael Dausa told local radio.
Some 2,000 Cuban doctors and paramedics work in different medical aid
programs in Bolivia, including an eye surgery program and one to build
hospitals. Cubans are also working on a literacy campaign in Bolivia.
Venezuela, using its swollen oil revenue, has donated police cars,
helicopters, radio stations and health clinics to Bolivia. Caracas has
also sent cash and advisers to help Morales with two of his key reforms,
nationalizing the energy industry and overhauling the constitution.
Santa Cruz has been the site of massive anti-government protests since
Morales became president. Last week anti-government protesters fought
the armed forces over control of Santa Cruz's airport, the busiest in
the country.
Rada said "verbal violence" from opposition leaders was to blame for the
attacks.
Three days ago Santa Cruz Governor Ruben Costas, an opposition leader,
harshly criticized Caracas' aid programs for Morales' government. (With
additional reporting by Carlos Quiroga and Eduardo Garcia in La Paz)
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