Former Chancellor
19 January 2022
Sea of mistakes
“Don’t look up.” As in a recent movie, a new mega meteorite is fast approaching that will have a devastating impact on the heart of our relationship -or lack of it- with Chile; all because of an erratic national foreign policy ignorant of the consequences of irresponsibility.
The trajectory of a course of action is followed that tragically led us to the War of the Pacific, or Saltpeter [War], as a result of the unilateral decision of the Government of Hilarión Daza to increase taxes, giving Chile reason to invade Bolivia, and causing us the loss of one of the largest copper reserves in the world, as well as territory and maritime access.
That same irascible and irresponsible logic of Daza led Evo Morales to “release the genie from the bottle”, prosecuting Chile and giving that country a new opportunity to inflict another resounding defeat on us, this time diplomatic, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on our more than century-old maritime claim.
And now, as incredible as it may seem, we are headed for a third debacle, the second one at the ICJ in The Hague, against Chile. It began with the public denunciation by Evo Morales that Chile was “stealing” Silala waters from us, in March 2016, and his irresponsible announcement that he would also take this issue to The Hague. But Chile beat us to the punch. After verifying that the Silala waters were, in fact, an international natural course flow, that country sued us before the ICJ in 2017.
Evo used to “just do it anyway”, to shoot and then ask the lawyers to fix the wrongs resulting from his haste and disregard of the law, Bolivia recently had to commission the verification of the nature of the flow of the Silala waters to Danish experts of prestige and international recognition, who confirmed the similar studies previously commissioned by Chile and which were presented in The Hague.
With Bolivia having already presented its counterclaim argument, the ICJ is days away from setting a date for the oral pleadings of both countries.
Given the technical evidence of the natural nature of the international flow of waters, which demolishes the initial Bolivian position contained in Evo Morales’ claim, that 100% of the flow originates in Bolivia and has been artificially canalized towards Chile, the judgment of the Court is predictable, to agree, once again, with Chile. This is going to have devastating political consequences for Potosi in particular, and for all of Bolivia.
The haste and improvisation with which this claim against Chile has been conducted, originally by the Morales Government, but fundamentally now due to the apathy and incompetence of the Arce Catacora administration, is criminal. To date, the Bolivian Foreign Ministry has not designated the diplomatic representative in Santiago. Only recently, after almost more than a year of government, has he appointed the diplomatic agent before the Court of The Hague, a third-rate official, without a professional degree. We do not have a representative before Chile or a defender in The Hague.
In times of peace, the Foreign Service is the only international defense a nation has to assert its rights and move forward in its interests. The current Government has disbanded more than 90% of career diplomatic officials, leaving Bolivia completely unguarded and powerless. This is a crime of high treason, the results of which we will see very soon.
This new “mega meteorite” will hit us head-on in the face of impotence, negligence, and indifference of this misgovernment whose driver is also “asleep at the wheel” of the foreign policy, as well as of the economy and health, among others.
If the previous one “just did things anyway”, the current one is petrified.
Source: https://www.paginasiete.bo/opinion/2022/1/19/mar-de-errores-321101.html
