Page Seven Digital
The 41 ambulances purchased by the Government of Potosí, a contract that was later dissolved in the midst of a scandal, will arrive in Bolivia this week from the United Arab Emirates, where the port of shipment is located. The motorized are Toyota brand and the headquarters of that firm is Japan.
According to the two cargo guides, a document from the National Customs Service of Chile, one batch consists of 24 vehicles and another of 20 units. The shipment arrived at the Chilean port of Iquique on March 15.
The case of the ghost ambulances came to light after it was revealed that officials from the Government of Potosí endorsed the reception of the batch of ambulances without even having arrived in the country. The Prosecutor’s Office investigates the people who were part of this process and not Governor Jhonny Mamani.
The motorized ones originate in Dubai and the import-export firm Harmony Ltda, whose location is the Iquique Free Trade Zone, was in charge of their transfer.
You can also read: Ghost ambulances: request formal imputation for the representative of Estefals Logistics
Another of the details that is established in the documents is that there are not 41 vehicles, in total they add up to 44 units.
At the end of last January, the Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, observed that the 41 ambulances that had initially been acquired by the Government of Potosí were not new, but “reconditioned” and that they have a Euro-V engine, which requires fuel higher octane.
They were all imported from Dubai, an aspect that also caught his attention.
“These ambulances, they are all Toyota brand (of Japanese origin), I wonder: why not buy from the official importer? These ambulances have been imported from Dubai, they have a Euro 5 standard, they were not going to serve the country. Many of these vehicles have been imported into the country not as new vehicles, but as reconditioned, with the impact of taxes that this implies”, the authority questioned at the time.
