Weekly Report - 07 April 2016 (WR-16-13)

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has begun a new offensive against the Chilean government led by President Michelle Bachelet. On 23 March, the national Day of the Sea when Bolivia commemorates the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific in which it lost its oceanic outlet, Morales announced plans to take a new case against Chile before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague. Bolivia filed a case in 2013 over Chile’s obligation to negotiate access to the Pacific, and the latest case, which the Morales government has yet to formally present, is over the Silala River which has its source in Bolivia’s Potosí department but flows across the border into Chile. Cynics have been quick to accuse Morales of seeking to distract from domestic woes – most notably the ongoing scandal involving his one-time lover Gabriela Zapata who is currently in prison for alleged corruption [WR-16-09].