La Paz, (EFE).- Former Bolivian President Evo Morales (2006-2019) affirmed that the exit to the sea for Bolivia is a “pending” issue for the region, when this Thursday Bolivians commemorate the loss of their coastline to Chile years ago 144 years in the so-called Pacific war.
“On #DíadelMar we confirm that Bolivia will never renounce its right to sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean,” Morales wrote on his Twitter account.
According to the former president, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague “determined that no treaty resolved the damage caused by the Chilean invasion of 1879 and called for a solution through dialogue.”
Bolivia brought its maritime claim before the ICJ in 2013 for Chile to negotiate in good faith sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean, but in 2018 that United Nations court determined that the Chilean State does not have the legal obligation to negotiate with the Bolivians.
“The ICJ ruling determined that Bolivia was born with 400 km of sovereign coastline and urged Bolivia and Chile to continue their dialogue in a spirit of good neighborliness to resolve the unjust confinement. The exit to the sea for Bolivia is a pending issue for the region, ”he pointed out.
Unlike the Morales administration, the maritime issue has been handled in a more discreet way during the more than two years of the government of the current Bolivian president, Luis Arce.
For this Thursday, Arce is scheduled to participate in official acts and address a message to the country.
The Constitution promulgated in 2009 establishes that the maritime claim and the sovereign exercise are “permanent and inalienable” objectives of the Bolivian State.
The Day of the Sea is commemorated every March 23 because on that date in 1879 Bolivia’s first resistance against what the Bolivian authorities describe as an invasion by Chilean troops took place, which began on February 14 of that same year.
Bolivia lost some 400 kilometers of coastline and nearly 120,000 square kilometers of territory in the so-called Pacific war.