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Bolivia is "very close" to regaining access to the sea, President Evo Morales said Sunday, a month ahead of initial arguments at the International Court of Justice, ICJ, in the Hague in a case filed by Bolivia against Chile over a sovereign exit to the Pacific Ocean.
"We are for the first time very close to returning to the Pacific with sovereignty," Morales said in a public ceremony Sunday commemorating the moment when a "chaski", meaning an Indigenous messenger, arrived in La Paz with a note that Chilean troops had invaded the Bolivian port of Antofagasta, in February 1879.
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The Indigenous man named Gregorio Colque then traveled almost 300 km on foot for six days to deliver the message, a journey similar to the one made this week by Army Lieutenant Rodolfo Choque to recreate Colque’s journey, where he arrived in La Paz on Saturday.
The Bolivian leader further said that his country lost its coastline due to "an invasion, not planned by the Chilean people, but by the Chilean oligarchy supported by English transnationals".
The president also announced that he will preside over a meeting with the Bolivian legal team Monday "to finalize details" for the ICJ hearings that will begin on March 19.
Former Bolivian president and envoy to the ICJ, Eduardo Rodríguez Veltze, explained that "the judgments of the international court of justice are final and binding," and Chile and Bolivia "will be able, both countries, to honor the decision of the Court, since they have submitted to it."
The ruling of the ICJ, which could be known at the end of the year, "is not a sentence that can be expected to determine that Chile has to deliver anything, it is an obligation to sit down and negotiate with Bolivia in good faith, in a timely and effective manner," he added.
According to the CIJ's timetable, Bolivia and Chile will make their first arguments from March 19 to 26, within the framework of a lawsuit brought by La Paz in 2013. Chile argues that it has no outstanding obligations.
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