Plans Advance for South America’s Bioceanic Railroad, as Spain and Russia Are Ready To Join

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Plans Advance for South America’s Bioceanic Railroad, as Spain and Russia Are Ready To Join

Nov. 5, 2018 (EIRNS)—Bolivia’s Public Works Minister Milton Claros announced at the end of last week that a Swiss-German consortium working with the Bolivian government on its proposed bioceanic railroad, which extends from the Peruvian port of Ilo on the Pacific to Brazil’s port of Santos on the Atlantic, traversing Bolivia, has offered financing for the project.

Consortium spokesman Michelle Moliari reported on Nov. 2 from the city of Cochabamba that it had reached that decision following inspection of the proposed Bolivian rail routes that would link to the Andean portion of the line to the West and to other lines on the eastern part of the proposed bioceanic route. Construction and/or upgrading of the Bolivian portions of the route are absolutely feasible, Molinari affirmed, reported América XXI.

On Nov. 3, Claros reported that the Spanish government has also sent a formal offer of financing for the project, to be made available through Spanish economic cooperation agencies, according to América XXI. On Nov. 1, the daily Los Tiempos reported that Russia’s Ambassador to Bolivia Vladimir Sprinchan has announced that by year’s end, the Moscow government will also formally propose joining the bioceanic project, and will send a technical delegation for further discussion. In addition, Moscow will be making several other specific proposals aimed at strengthening ties with Bolivia in a number of areas.

Such cooperation is certainly not to the liking of the region’s British geopolitical allies. Although Brazil signed a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year to officially join the bioceanic project, reports are now surfacing that President-elect Jair Bolsonaro may be looking for a way out of that agreement, as he want to reduce cooperation with Bolivia. When he spoke by phone with Chile’s neo-liberal President Sebastian Piñera last week, the two reportedly discussed an alternative bioceanic project that would exclude Bolivia.