Andean Group - March 2011 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Last month saw the first visit to Bolivia by a Chilean foreign minister for 60 years. Heading up a high-level delegation, Alfredo Moreno travelled to La Paz to discuss, with his Bolivian peer David Choquehuanca, the 13-point bilateral agenda aimed at repairing diplomatic ties, which were severed in 1978. The outcome of the visit proved less historic, however, with little suggestion as to how the hitherto insurmountable points of contention- Bolivia's demand for access to the sea, which it lost to Chile in the 1879-1884 War of the Pacific, and rights to the Silala River - would be addressed.

If nothing else, the February visit by Moreno suggests that the diplomatic rapprochement between Bolivia and Chile, which began in 2006 under Chile's then President Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010) and President Evo Morales, in part due to their close personal rapport, has continued under Bachelet's centre-right successor, Sebastián Piñera, despite his ideological differences with Morales.

Cooperation in the areas of trade and the economy has also continued to gather pace since the signing of a key trade agreement in July 2009. The most recent sign of this was a visit by a Chilean business delegation in mid February, which yielded a pledge to establish a joint Chile-Bolivia business committee tasked with devising joint policies aimed at promoting bilateral trade. The possibility of allowing Bolivia access to Chile's northern Iquique port to boost exports, which was floated in July 2010 [RA-10-10] and could be applied to the other ports of Arica and Antofagasta, is also one step closer to becoming a reality. The Bolivian and Chilean press both reported that a two-week practice run of what the operation would entail was staged at the end of November last year.

Despite these developments however, there has been little indication as to how the two chief obstacles preventing a resumption of relations are to be overcome and there have been renewed signs of intransigence on both sides, particularly regarding the issue of access to the Pacific. While insisting on his willingness to consider a “creative solution" to the issue, with Iquique port an example, Piñera is clear that he will not grant full sovereign access to the sea. Last December, in response to a report by Chilean daily La Tercera, which claimed to have documents suggesting that Bachelet had considered granting Bolivia a sovereign enclave at Tarapacá, near Iquique, on which Bolivia could build a new port, Moreno said that the government could not agree to allow Bolivia a sovereign corridor to the Pacific which would divide Chile.

The Bolivians, whose new 2009 Constitution declares access to the Pacific an “inalienable and imprescriptible" right (Art.267), are equally unwilling to back down. Choquehuanca himself caused a brief stir at the start of the year when he said that Bolivia had not ruled out taking Chile to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague in its demand for a Pacific outlet. When the Chilean government expressed its 'displeasure' at this, Choquehuanca sent formal assurances that Bolivia was committed to the agreed bilateral agenda “within a framework of dialogue", which Moreno accepted.

• US cooperation
  Bolivia's dependence on Brazil for anti-drugs assistance is likely to intensify given that the 2012 budget proposal by the Barack Obama administration requests a 50% reduction in anti-narcotics funding for Bolivia for 2012 - from US$20m in 2011 to US$10m. According to the latest US International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), in 2010 the US government “provided administrative support for anti-corruption training_ [as well as] _ the training of 9012 police officers, prosecutors and other GOB and non-government organization (NGO) officials - 60% more than in 2009. The USG also supported 112 training courses, seminars and conferences - 90% more than in 2009.

• Chile
  President Evo Morales last month called on his Chilean counterpart Sebastián Piñera to come up with a “concrete proposal" regarding Bolivia's demand for access to the Pacific by the deadline of 23 March, Bolivia's annual “Sea Day," (which marks the loss of territory after the 1879-1884 Pacific War). His demand received a curt response from Chilean foreign minister, Alfredo Moreno, who said that Chile was working for “results" rather than “deadlines".