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The opposition deputy from Bolivia, Edgar Zegarra Bernal, of the Libre alliance, denounced this Monday that Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo refuses to provide a report on the roles and tasks of the diplomats from Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran in Bolivia. He announced a parliamentary interpellation in response to what he termed an official "wall of silence," reported the local media eju.tv.
The statements by Zegarra gain strength following the publication, last Friday, of an investigation by the international journalistic consortium Forbidden Stories based on 76 leaked documents in Russian, totaling 1,431 pages, which revealed the existence of a propaganda network known as "the Company", linked to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and the defunct Wagner Group.
According to that investigation, seven Russian "specialists" arrived in La Paz in July 2024 with the aim of improving the image of then-President Luis Arce and shaping the narrative surrounding the military uprising on June 26 of that year, which critical sectors labeled as an alleged "self-coup."
The network managed a global budget of 7.3 million dollars, wrote speeches for high-ranking Bolivian officials, and executed smear campaigns against Evo Morales.
Cuba is explicitly mentioned in the legislator's allegations as part of the web of foreign influence that operated under the so-called "masista system."
"We had information that in the country, within the masista system, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, our country, and recently Iran, have manipulated things as they pleased," stated Zegarra, who accused the embassies of these four countries of having "made deals of the century with our natural resources" and of interfering in the intelligence operations of the Bolivian state, undermining the dignity and sovereignty of the country.
The deputy emphasized that the lack of response from the chancellor is not accidental: "I don't know why the Chancellor has not provided us with that information until now. He has already been called for an oral report and a written report, and he has never done anything."
The link between Cuba and these operations is not surprising in the regional context. A report from the Digital News Association published on April 1 revealed that Russia has trained more than 1,000 Latin American influencers, including Cubans, to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda, with 200 Spanish-speaking employees in offices in Venezuela, Cuba, and Argentina.
In April 2025, Cuba also signed a agreement with Russia to develop an artificial intelligence laboratory capable of amplifying propaganda on social media.
Senator Manuel Ormachea, also from the Libre alliance, warned that alleged foreign structures influenced the generation of content and "fake news," which he described as a "narrative to support the self-coup by Luis Arce Catacora and to present it as if it were a coup d'état."
The Bolivian Foreign Ministry did not issue any statement regarding the deputy's allegations or the findings of the journalistic consortium, which places Minister Aramayo at the center of increasing political pressure.
Zegarra announced that if official silence continues, he will proceed with a formal interpellation: "We are calling him to an interpellation because he has already been summoned and has never done anything," warned the legislator, who demanded clarification on whether the diplomats from Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran operated in Bolivia outside the law and with direct interference in matters of intelligence and state propaganda.
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