Bolivia's President-elect Evo Morales on flying visit to Venezuela, Tuesday

Bolivia's President-elect Evo Morales will arrive in Caracas, Tuesday, for a brief visit at the invitation of President Hugo Chavez at the start of a schedule which, according to spokesperson Alex Contreras, will take him to Spain and other countries.

Contreras said that the acceptance of President Chavez' invitation "has been finalized and that, instead of traveling directly to Madrid on January 3, Morales will fly to Caracas for a top-level meeting with Chavez.

Morales scheduled itinerary ... including Spain, France, Belgium, South Africa, China and Brazil ... will remain intact. The only change is that he will leave several hours earlier than planned on Tuesday to meet Chavez at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.

Morales had returned, Saturday, from a visit to Cuba's President Fidel Castro ... his first trip outside Bolivia after his clear 53.7% majority election as President of Bolivia in December 18 elections.

Contreras said that the trip to Caracas is in response to an invitation from President Chavez who had been in touch with Morales during his Friday-Saturday visit to Havana. He said that Morales, accompanied only by Contreras and Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Toward Socialism, MAS) economist Carlos Villegas, will arrive in Caracas around 10.00 a.m. Tuesday and will continue to Madrid around 4.00 p.m. after meeting with Chavez.

As soon as Morales assumes presidential power in Bolivia, Chavez has offered to put necessary Venezuelan government technology and human resources at his disposal to initiate a large-scale rural identification campaign in Bolivia, financed by Venezuela.

"It’s going to be a very important identification campaign that will be supported by the Venezuelan government. We know that in the rural areas many people don’t vote, because they have no identity documentation."

From Madrid (Spain), Morales and his team will continue on to Paris (France) on January 5 to meet with Jacques Chirac and, on January 6, they will travel to Brussels (Belgium) to meet European Union officials.

Contreras says that a projected visit to Holland had been suspended because Morales and his entourage must leave for South Africa on January 6 to meet former South African President, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nelson Mandela and current President Thabo Mbeki.
On January 9, Morales will fly to Beijing for three days to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and, from there, will continue his tour to Brazil to meet Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on January 13 returning home to La Paz to prepare for his inauguration on January 22 when he takes over the presidency from Eduardo Rodriguez.