Friction rises between Chile and Bolivia at CELAC Summit

Old tensions emerge over the arrest of Bolivian soldiers at Chilean border, dispute over maritime access.

The Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Santiago was supposed to be an experiment in regional cohesion, but it was marked by a spat between Chilean and Bolivian officials Monday over a longstanding territorial dispute.



At the summit, Bolivian President Evo Morales reaffirmed his intent to press Chile to respond to his demand for an outlet to the Pacific coast that the landlocked country lost after the 1879 War of the Pacific. Morales reiterated his stance that the 1904 Treaty that established the postwar boundaries was unjust.

“The 1904 Treaty has been revised three or four times on a proposal by the Chilean government, but it is an unjust treaty, imposed and incomplete,” the Bolivian president told the press. “Treaties are not untouchable and they are never unchangable.”

Morales has publicly considered bringing his demand to the U.N.’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Europe and sent a delegation to observe Chile’s argument before the ICJ in a separate maritime dispute with Peru last December.

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera responded the Bolivian president’s request during the CELAC Summit’s plenary session on Monday, hoping to put an end to what he calls "a conversation between deaf people."
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