Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Chile to OAS: Stay out of coastline controversy

Chile does not want the OAS to intervene in a dispute with landlocked Bolivia's request for a coastline. Most Chileans are against ceding any coastline to Bolivia, according to a recent poll.

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4 comments:

Eli Blake said...

Historically, Bolivia did once have a coastline. But they lost it in a three way war with Chile and Peru.

In this context, I once blogged

Morales also named new army, navy, air force and police chiefs.

Bolivian navy? Did I miss something?

Maybe I did miss something.

I have to side with Chile on this one though. You can't just ask a country to give away territory. If Bolivia wants to come up with enough cash to actually buy it, and Chile accepts the offer, that is one thing. But otherwise, in today's global economy, Bolvia has several ways they can truck goods into and out of the country to a seaport. The fuel and shipping costs would be the same, so it is much more realistic to simply ask Chile and other countries to consider not charging duties on goods passing through their territory on the way to someplace else. Heck, why not cooperate with Chile on building better roads and/or railroads?

Some countries are landlocked. That is a fact of both history and geography. Look at it this way: Bolivia has an adequate supply of water and northern Chile has the driest desert in the world. It seems like these two could be good neighbors in a lot of ways, because they could each help the other.

9:23 AM
Taylor Kirk said...

Great post, Eli. This may be a completely naive solution but I don't think Bolivia needs to actually own any territory that leads to the coast as long as Chile guarantees right-of-way for access to it. If Chile refrained from taxing Bolivians for going through that area (through road tolls or freight charges) and allowed Bolivia the use of any ports in that area, Chile could resolve the dispute to rest while saving face. Come on Michelle, put your womanly negotiating powers to use!

10:23 AM
Erwin C. said...

The graphic to the right of the post shows Bolivia's small coastline in the 19th century. (Sorry if it's too small).

12:30 PM
Paul Aliaga said...

My friend Erwin, old maps could lead to an endless dispute and controversies that our countries don't need. Present/future negotiations should be around complementary interests, such as sweet/salty water an the like.

12:55 PM

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