Bolivia’s Morales apologizes for meeting with Iranian official

Bolivian President Evo Morales apologized for and called his meeting with Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi a “mistake.”

Morales made the apology on July 1 in Buenos Aires during a meeting with Aldo Donzis, head of DAIA, the Jewish political umbrella in Argentina.

Argentina has accused Vahidi of planning the July 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed and hundreds wounded.  The Argentina Justice Department had called on Interpol to detain Vahidi, who has had an international arrest warrant issued against him since 2007.

Donzis met with Morales to protest the meeting on behalf of the Argentinean Jewish community and the victims of the AMIA attack. Six Bolivian citizens who were working at the Jewish center building were also killed in the attack.

“I have to honestly say that this was a mistake and I express my deep and sincere apologies, ” Morales said, Donzis told journalists after the meeting.

Vahidi left Bolivia on May 31 after arriving the previous day on an official visit to attend a military ceremony led by Morales.

Donzis described his meeting with the Bolivian President as “very positive.” The meeting was also attended by Bolivian government minister Sergio Solis Llorenti, and that country’s ambassador in Argentina, Leonor Arauco Lemaitre.

While in Bolivia, Vahidi attended a ceremony marking the 59th anniversary of the Colmilav Military Aviation School. Diplomats from Cuba and Venezuela also attended. In September 2009, the Iranian parliament unanimously approved Vahidi’s nomination to be the country’s defense minister. Vahidi declared that his appointment was “testimony to the anti-Zionist spirit of the Iranian Parliament and Iranian people.”

Argentinean prosecutor Alberto Nisman has accused Iran of masterminding the AMIA attack and requested that Vahidi be detained in Bolivia, which borders Argentina. But Vahidi left Bolivia for Iran on May 31.

The Jewish community leader said that “it is not easy to find a president who clearly admits that he has made a mistake.” During the meeting, the DAIA and Bolivian government agreed to “work together” on issues of immigration and discrimination.