Brazil confirms Lula will visit Bolivia and Venezuela next week

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will visit Bolivia and Venezuela on January 15 and January 16 to announce integration projects and meet with Presidents Evo Morales and Hugo Chávez, confirmed the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Lula will meet with Morales next Thursday in the Bolivian city of Puerto Suárez and on the same day he will travel to Caracas, where he will hold his traditional quarterly meeting with President Chávez, reported EFE. In Caracas, Lula and Chávez will meet again following their meeting last September in the Brazilian city of Manaus, where both governments announced seven agreements, including one to build a steel plant and other to build a binational refinery.