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"By 12 votes to 3, the court concludes that the Republic of Chile has not contracted the legal obligation to negotiate sovereign access to the State … of Bolivia," says the judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of the International Court of Justice.
Exterior view of the Peace Palace, headquarters of the ICJ, in February 2012. ICY-ICJ / UN-UN / Photos of the capital / Gerald van Daalen / File
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands – On Monday, October 1, the International Court of Justice ruled against the conflict between landlocked Bolivia and Chile for access to the 19th century Pacific Ocean.
Bolivia lost its privileged route to the sea during a 1879-1883 war with Chile, and since then Santiago has rejected all attempts to recover its coastline by its smaller and poorer neighbor.
La Paz has summoned Santiago to the United Nations' highest court in The Hague in 2013 to try to force him to the negotiating table on the maritime niche, a lasting tension on relations between the two countries of South America .
"By 12 votes to 3, the court held that the Republic of Chile had not contracted the legal obligation to negotiate sovereign access to the State … of Bolivia", said Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf at the end of a judgment that took an hour. and 20 minutes to read.
The judge said, however, that he hoped "both parties could be willing to engage in serious negotiations".
The Bolivian left-wing president, Evo Morales, who has used the case to strengthen his country's support as he seeks a fourth term, has gone to court to The verdict.
"Bolivia will never give up its claims," Morales told reporters. "The peoples of the world know that Bolivia has been invaded and that we have lost our sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean."
"False expectations"
The ICJ was created after the Second World War to settle disputes between UN member states. The findings of the court are binding and without appeal, although it has no real power to enforce them.
Chile and Bolivia have had no diplomatic relations since 1978, when Bolivia 's last major attempt to negotiate a passage through the Pacific failed in the event of acrimony.
The Pacific war has pitted Bolivia and Peru on one side with Chile on the other. Battles took place in the Pacific Ocean, the Andes and even in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world.
Decades of post-independence border tensions in South America have finally been triggered by a dispute over Bolivia's attempts to tax a Chilean company exploiting saltpetre, a mineral used in fertilizer that replaced the then 39, traditional use of guano, excrement of seabirds and bats.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has criticized his Bolivian counterpart for saluting the ICJ decision.
"Bolivian President Evo Morales has created false expectations among his people and has created great frustration among his people," he said in a statement.
"We have lost 5 precious years of the healthy and necessary relationship that Chile needs with all neighboring countries, including Bolivia."
& # 39; The fight continues! & # 39;
Morales has armed the conflict to boost his popularity in his country. The importance of the issue is underscored by the fact that Bolivia still has a marine despite the lack of access to the sea.
A small crowd of Bolivian protesters waved flags, played the pan flute and hit the drum in front of the Peace Palace for the verdict, shouting "The fight continues!"
"Of course, we are sad about the decision – we are a small country, but we are neither Switzerland nor Luxembourg – we have to be able to export and import our products," said Gabriella Telleria, 50, who is the only one in the world. one of the protesters.
"We asked for justice and we did not get it," she told Agence France-Presse.
Bolivia said recovering the 400 km of coastline along Chile's northern tip, lost during the war, would spur the growth and development of the poorest country in South America.
Bolivian activists said the loss of the Chuquicamata mine, the world's largest open-pit copper mine in the disputed area, had also severely affected the indigenous peoples of the country.
For its part, Santiago says that the border is based on a peace treaty of 1904 signed with Bolivia following the Pacific war and must therefore be respected.
Meanwhile, Chile has opened its own case against Bolivia over the Silala waterway, which flows into the Atacama desert and which La Paz has threatened to hijack. – Rappler.com
