As a pretext to justify this hostile measure, Bulrich argued that Bolivia has ties with Iran on military issues. “Our border with Bolivia is an important border. We have there the highest level of alert and security in the country, because there has been a memorandum signed by Bolivia and Iran,” Bullrich said in an interview, pointing out that Iranian elite forces (Quds Force) would even have been present in the region.

Bulrich added that they are also being investigating whether there are people, for example, who do not speak Spanish, and who have received Bolivian passports, based on the alleged delivery of such documents to Iranian citizens.

Last July, the Minister of Defense of Bolivia, Edmundo Novillo, defended his trip to Iran and criticized the “stigma” attached to relations with that country. The official vindicated Iran’s development in science and technology and stressed that it can help Bolivia strengthen its fight against drug trafficking and smuggling.

President Luis Arce, for his part, assured last December 16th that it is necessary to forge a new military leadership in the face of the threats of hybrid war that seek to isolate Bolivia and subordinate it to attempts at global hegemony, and described that the invasions are not territorial anymore, but have new characteristics that advance by attacking “the minds and hearts of the people” with “color revolutions, soft attacks,” attempted coups, which seek to affect democracy and orderly gobernance.

The president stressed that Bolivia is not free from this type of modern warfare, which occurs in cyberspace, in the economy, socially and in other aspects with disinformation strategies, with “black propaganda”, cyberattacks, sabotage and other tools.

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