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Santa Cruz (Bolivia), April 14 (IANS)
Bolivia President Evo Morales has announced that all categories of the 2016 Dakar Rally will race through his country.
In 2015, the country hosted three divisions of the famous rugged off-road race -- cars, motorcycles and quads. Next year, trucks will be included, reports Xinhua.
"We have good news. The third edition is going to include trucks," Morales, who believes the race has helped bring in tourism dollars, said here on Monday.
While the rally organiser, the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), is not due to announce the exact routes and dates of the competition until April 16, Morales said Bolivia will host three days of competition and two rest days.
"The preliminary information we have is that (the race) will enter via Peru, pass through Bolivia, and continue on to Argentina," said Morales.
This year's race, which took place in January, crisscrossed Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, which has announced it will not take part in next year's rally possibly due to protests by archaeological experts who denounced the race for damaging historic sites.
Bolivian quad racer Walter Nosiglia grabbed third place in his division in the 2015 rally whose Bolivian segment took racers through the world's largest salt flats, the 10,582-square-kilometre Salar de Uyuni.
Also this year, Polish motorcyclist Michal Hernik (KTM) was found dead on Day 3 of the race, apparently due to dehydration.
Following the 2015 edition, Morales' government said the race helped "transform the economy, the living conditions in the southern region, especially in Uyuni" where the number of Japanese visitors increased by 500 percent.
Morales has made a push to increase Bolivia's tourism earnings by raising the country's profile abroad. In February, Bolivia's culture ministry invited British actor Jude Law to promote the country's carnival celebrations.
The legendary and controversial race, originally known as the Paris to Dakar rally, was moved to South America when political unrest in Africa made it too dangerous to hold there.
