Bolivia’s national defense council Cosdena has rejected the choice of a port in Chile to handle exports of Bolivian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to North America, according to Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos. Cosdena rejected the Chilean option for strategic reasons, and recommended the choice of a port in Peru. The recommendation was made in a report to President Jorge Quiroga, and revealed in a letter from Cosdena member General Victor Manuel Jemio Oropeza to congressmen Carlos Garcia Suarez and Andres Soliz Rada, who had previously requested a position from Codensa.
Discussions over who will be the next President meanwhile continue, following last Sunday’s elections when neither of the two favorite candidates secured a majority. Rightist ex-president and multimillionaire Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) is seen as likely to have the most support, Los Tiempos reported. An alliance of NGOs fronted by Greenpeace has started a campaign against the LNG project. “The consumption of gas alone will increase the gas emissions that contribute to global warming in California by 17%,” Greenpeace said in a document Monday. Together with Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace argues that the regasification plant would never be allowed to operate in the US because it would be an obvious target for terrorists. The report only deals with the environmental impact of the LNG Pacific project on North America and does not make any reference to the environmental impact on Bolivia or on the port that will export the gas, Los Tiempos said.
