Bolivia seeks return to sea

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivian and Chilean news-papers these days are filled with minute details of a 125-year-old border conflict that has come back to life as one of South America’s top issues.

In 1879, Chile seized 75,000 square miles of territory and 250 miles of coastline from Bolivia in a conflict that also involved Peru and is known as “the War of the Pacific.”

Ever since, Bolivians have fumed over the loss of the Litoral de Atacama, the seaside area that now belongs to Chile. In a succession of conflicts during the next 55 years, Bolivia also lost the oil-bearing Chaco region to Paraguay and rubber-growing areas to Brazil, but being cut off from the sea and not having access to the world hurts most.

In October, widespread opposition to plans for exporting Bolivian gas through Chile contributed to a popular uprising that ousted Bolivia’s elected president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

His vice president and successor, Carlos Mesa, is making the recovery of some sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean his government’s No. 1 foreign-policy priority.

Mr. Mesa has called off free-trade talks with Chile and stressed in speeches at home and abroad that any further postponement of a solution to Bolivia’s landlocked status could “destabilize the region” because it “has put Bolivian democracy at risk.”

In a interview with The Washington Times at the presidential palace, Mr. Mesa, a former historian and journalist, said lack of access to the Pacific through a shoreline of its own has contributed to Bolivia’s severe underdevelopment in the past century.

“The issue of sovereign access to the sea — for reasons that any person who understands economics knows — is much different than merely seeking a piece of territory,” he said.

“To lack access to the sea is without a doubt a very serious handicap that has very seriously affected the economy of Bolivia and continues to be a problem. And for historical reasons, this has a deep emotional component that is very important for our country,” he said.

Since the forced departure of Mr. Sanchez, there has been a flurry of international diplomacy in support of Bolivia’s need for sea access. On a recent trip to South America, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan offered his offices for eventual talks between Bolivia and Chile. Mexican President Vicente Fox and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have volunteered to mediate.

Bolivia also has received encouraging words from the European Parliament, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and the Vatican.

However, Chilean officials adamantly deny that their country hampers Bolivia’s economic development by denying it a slice of the Pacific coast. They point out that under a 1904 treaty between the adjoining countries, Bolivia has duty-free access to the northern Chilean port of Arica, and Chile paid for and built a railroad linking Arica with the Bolivian capital, La Paz.

The Bush administration has reversed a long-standing policy of U.S. support for Bolivia’s quest for sovereign access to the Pacific. Acting as mediator in 1926, the United States recommended that the port of Arica in northern Chile be given to Bolivia. At the time, Chile agreed, but Peru refused to accept the proposal.

Peru had been an ally of Bolivia against Chile in the 1879 war, but had borne the brunt of the fighting, in which its navy was destroyed and its capital, Lima, badly damaged. Bolivia had no navy and withdrew from the fighting early.

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