Vice President Departs on South American Tour

VICE President Al Gore Jr. began a whirlwind South American goodwill tour yesterday that will take him to Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil over the next two days.

Mr. Gore left Andrews Air Force Base aboard Air Force Two, his official jetliner, enroute to the Bolivian capital for a seven-hour visit before flying on to Buenos Aires, where he will keynote the World Telecommunications Development Conference.

Sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union, a Geneva-based United Nations agency with 182 member nations, the conference is focusing on how to bring modern communications to the poorest, most remote parts of the globe.

From Buenos Aires, Gore will go on to Brasilia for talks with Brazilian leaders and a ``town hall'' meeting with rank-and-file citizens. He is scheduled to return to Washington tomorrow.

Gore's 55-hour, 10,934-mile trip was partly designed to lay the groundwork for a ``Summit of the Americas'' that President Clinton will host in Miami next December. Every leader of the hemisphere except Cuba's Fidel Castro and Haiti's military rulers are to be invited to that gathering, which will focus on development.