Chile y Brasil abren a Bolivia el acceso marítimo

December 18, 2007 (LPAC) -- Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Brazilian President Lula da Silva made a diplomatic intervention which supported Bolivia, during a time when the impoverished Bolivia is threatened by outside intervention.

The two members of the Ibero-American "Presidents' Club" arrived in Bolivia on December 15 to sign the "Declaration of La Paz" to build a bi-oceanic corridor. This is a 4,000-kilometer highway that will connect the Brazilian port of Santos on the Atlantic, pass through Santa Cruz in Bolivia, and then link to the Chilean cities of Arica and Iquique, both ports through which landlocked Bolivia can import and export goods. In contrast to the extreme internal political tensions and polarization, the two Presidents offered an optimistic vision of the future, in which investments the highway construction will bring will benefit Bolivians with jobs, higher livings standards, and greater economic and cultural integration with their two neighboring countries.

President Bachelet's intervention is particularly important given the history of conflict that Great Britain has orchestrated between the two countries, dating back to the 1879-1881 War of the Pacific, in which Bolivia lost its Pacific Coast territory to Chile. Since becoming President, Bachelet has very deliberately reached out to Bolivia, offering dialogue and economic cooperation. In this her third visit to the nation, she warmly thanked the Bolivian people for welcoming her so affectionately, and noted that with this corridor, "the Atlantic and Pacific will cease to live physically with their backs to each other, and we shall find ourselves in a single embrace of humanity and fraternity."