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Bolivia took Monday its neighbor Chile to court, seeking to resolve a century-old dispute over precious access to the Pacific Ocean which has bedeviled bilateral ties.
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"We have waited a long time for this opportunity, but we are a patient and determined people," said former Bolivian president Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze, addressing the court, while “the entire Bolivian nation” was tuning into the proceedings in The Hague via giant screens erected in their cities.
Chile had made "a repeated and consistent commitment to Bolivia to end its landlocked situation," he maintained, saying the lack of sea access had had a devastating effect on the impoverished country's development.
"By fulfilling this promise to its neighbor, two countries united by culture, geography, history and fraternal spirit can heal all wounds and move forward," Veltze added. "We are here with one voice in pursuit of justice," he said, explaining the country once had 400 kilometers of coastline in the Atacama desert. "Today it has none."
Bolivia, South America's poorest country, became landlocked after losing a four-year war against Chile in 1883, forfeiting territory and its access to the sea.
Following some 130 years of fruitless negotiations with Santiago, La Paz lodged a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in The Hague in April 2013.
According to estimates, Bolivia's "annual GDP growth would be at least 20 percent higher" if it had not been stripped of sea access, while its transport costs are estimated to be 31 percent higher than the continental average, he said.
"More than a century has passed since the Chilean invasion of Bolivia's coast... an act of aggression that resulted in territorial dismemberment and the painful loss of sovereign access to the sea." Allowing access "would make a small difference to Chile, but it would transform the destiny of Bolivia," Veltze said.
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