back to article Landlocked Bolivia seeks legal route to Pacific

Bolivian president Evo Morales has pledged that his landlocked nation will reclaim access to the sea, 132 years after it lost its coastline to Chile. Speaking on the "Day of the Sea", marking the War of the Pacific which ended with a defeated Bolivia cut off from the Pacific, Morales rattled a legal sabre at Chile over the " …

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  1. John Brookes
    Joke

    Football chant

    Apparently, when Chile play Bolivia at football, the Chile fans delight in singing, "Vamos A La Playa" ("Let's all go to the beach") at the Bolivians.

    Harsh. Funny, but harsh

  2. Graysonn
    Pirate

    "Chile is Chile. We're not Bolivian Indians. Imperialist British out."

    "Chile is Chile. We're not Bolivian Indians. Imperialist British out."

    There's a lot of racism towards the indigenous indians from Hispanics. Although they're in the majority in Bolivia, Evo Morales is the first indigenous leader they've had (and they've had a lot. I think they've had well over 100 governments in 200 years of independence) . And the hispanic population tend to look down on them. It's like that in a lot of other south american countries and I'd be willing to bet that the author of that comment was hispanic and is writing to a hispanic audience.

    To me that comment stinks of racism.

    Although, maybe the Bolivians should get a port so they can move their navy back off lake Titicaca.

    1. Roger Varley

      That should be worth watching ...

      >>Although, maybe the Bolivians should get a port so they can move their navy back off lake >>Titicaca

      .... given that Lake Titicaca is 12,500ft above sea level.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
        Coat

        re: That should be worth watching

        Quote: .... given that Lake Titicaca is 12,500ft above sea level.

        Details. Mere Details don't bother me with details....

        Ok. I'm outta here. Mines the one with the ??? Oh wait what does Bolivia make? Famous Belgians?

        1. proto-robbie
          Pirate

          Don't see a problem with that

          Castors, and a stick for prodding.

        2. Nick Wallis
          FAIL

          Lion

          >> Oh wait what does Bolivia make?

          Lithium. I hear it's going to be quite an important mineral in the future.

      2. Francis Boyle Silver badge

        Easy

        Just call Fitzcarraldo - has to be easier on the way down.

  3. Stratman

    title

    Conflict in oil producing countries:- oil price goes up

    Conflict in marching powder producing countries...........

    Tee hee. The wunch of bankers will need those bonuses.

    1. Adam Foxton
      Megaphone

      What a brilliant collective noun!

      "A Flock of Seagulls"

      "A Herd of Cattle"

      "A Wunch of Bankers"

      Everyone! Start using that collective noun in normal speech, see if we can get the BBC to use it!

      1. Michael Dunn
        Headmaster

        Re: A wunch of Bankers

        The BBC has already used it - it was a line in an episode of Hustle back in 2005 or 2006.

    2. Matthew Smith

      Bolivia will have the last laugh

      When we move to electric cars, and need all the lithium we can get to build the batteries, guess which country will be the new Saudi Arabia?

      1. Anton Ivanov

        That's OK as long as it is not the new Kuwait...

        Well, if it is not the new kuwait...

  4. Graysonn
    Pirate

    The bolivian navy

    according to wikipedia (that most trustworthy of sources)

    "As of 2008, the Bolivian Naval Force had approximately 5,000 personnel"

    That's more than Ireland. lol.

    1. proto-robbie
      Pirate

      Ah, got it...

      Ireland's got a lot of spare coastline, but not many sailors, and Bolivia au contraire. Trade, that's what we need.

      I'm sure the Titicaca Atacama Connemara Marineros will have a grand old time too.

      1. Red Bren
        Pirate

        Redress the balance?

        Chile has a lot to thank the Irish for - http://gosouthamerica.about.com/cs/southamerica/a/ChieBOhiggins.htm

  5. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    Bolivia should look on the bright side.

    At least their state broadcaster's version of "Coast" isn't likely to run to more than one bloody series........

    1. John 62

      BBC Coast

      Even with the UK's miles and miles and miles and miles of coastline, the BBC still had to go to Norway, France and the Republic of Ireland. Though I'll grant you the Norwegian episode was very interesting.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I lived in Bolivia for a while

    Starting crazy expansionist wars, losing, and finishing up with less land than they started with was Bolivia's hobby in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Unsurprisingly, none of the inhabitants of this disputed area want to be repatriated from Chile (the richest country in South America) to Bolivia (one of the poorest). To everyone but Bolivians this is ancient history now. Evo likes grandstanding but he must know Bolivia is never getting the land back.

    1. Marvin the Martian
      Stop

      Maybe they became sensible?

      In similar disputes about garden boundaries etc, 20years effective occupation without anybody's counter-efforts at legal redress tend to be the norm; after that you're rightful owner. So a bit late, nice try, try the invading shtick again.

  7. D L Clements

    Worrying

    If this goes bad then it'll cause problems for all the astronomy projects in the Atacama desert in Chile. They're all towards the Bolivian border, and there has already been a case of astronomers held at gunpoint, taken into Bolivia, robbed, and then abandoned at night in the high desert to make their own way back.

  8. Chemist

    Why don't they build ..

    a tunnel ?

  9. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @ Imperialist British out

    To be fair it's been pushing 1000years since Britain had a a native leader.

    Hanoverians out of Buck house, and Old Harrovians out of number 10.

    1. Chris Miller
      Thumb Up

      @YAAC

      Did you mean Etonians? The last Old Harrovian to occupy No 10 was Winston Churchill in 1955.

  10. Getter lvl70 Druid

    Interesting.

    While I know American history and quite a bit of Asian and European history, but next to nothing south of the Panama Canal.

    Oversight on my part... kinda like the quote from Stewie Griffin, "So which of the Latin countries are you from: the one with the civil war, the one with the cocaine, or the one with the fancy hats?"

    ;)

  11. Graham Bartlett

    Is it just me

    If (a) you started the war, (b) you lost the war, (c) the war was 5 generations ago, and (d) no-one living in that area wants to be in your country, I reckon you're pretty much SOL.

    1. asdf
      Flame

      brits should know better than most

      South America doesn't think that way. Ask Argentina in about a century.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Flame

        RE: brits should know better than most

        When the Argentinians tell us we are colonialists occupying the Falklands they usually don't like to be reminded of how they all got to be there.

        Something to do with a seriously weakened argument?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    @Graysonn

    Racism in South America? Typical anglo framing of what happens in the rest of the world. South America is the quintessential definition of a melting pot of cultures and races. You can't define what indian or hispanic (the correct word you're trying to use is "criollo") is now days as population in South America truly is a continuous spectrum of ethnic mixes.

    I'm not saying that the way that "indio" is used is not going in the direction that you're understood, but although it looks like racial, it really is classicist. If you take a 100% native in South America, no matter who his/her parents are, and make sure that he/she is educated and behaves accordingly, nobody will call him indian anymore. If on the other hand, you hardly speak Spanish, can't read/write and have no idea of what happens outside of your immediate surroundings, you'll get the label immediately. I've even heard people refer to some "mestizos" as being blond indians.

    Sometimes I think that the US' handling of the civil rights movement was intentionally pushed towards race to keep it from being a socioeconomic class struggle... After all, the communists could not be allowed to be right about anything.

  13. '); DROP TABLE comments; --
    Megaphone

    They should let Bolivia have it, since they deserve it

    I like Bolivians. Unlike most of us in the West, they actually have the guts to get up and fight for their freedom when greedy corporations and tax-crazed governments try to rip them off. Google "Cochabamba Water War" to see what happens when greedy multinationals and politicians try to bill Bolivians for collecting rainwater.

    Which is in stark contrast to the spineless sheep of Australia, who are just sitting on their fat backsides taking it up the sphincter while the SA government tables a bill to introduce rainwater metering here. That's right, a greedy government measure, which in Bolivia roused an ENTIRE FUCKING CITY to tear down a water company's offices and drive its governor from the country, in Australia doesn't produce even a "fuck that!"

    Maybe I'll go and live in Bolivia. Seems like it's fast becoming a better place to live than Ausfailia right about now. At least the rainwater's still free there.

    1. elderlybloke
      Pint

      Well '); DROP TABLE

      Speaking from wet New Zealand, I can only assume the SA Government are taxing rainwater because there is bugger all of it in Australia.(Except occasionally in Queensland and NSW)

      However it is strange that the Canberra Government wants to tax Carbon because you have too much of it.

  14. Allan George Dyer
    Coat

    "concrete proposals" to satisfy Bolivia's demands?

    Was that the demand that said, "cover Chile with concrete so we can use it as a container port"?

    Yep, the one with the hard hat and the keys to the concrete mixer...

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    In the tradition of playgrounds everywhere....

    FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

    [cue music from old DOS game 'Cannon Fodder']

    WAR!

    Never been so much fun,

    WAR!

    Never been so much fun,

    Go to your brother,

    Kill him with your gun,

    Leave him lying in his uniform,

    Dying in the sun....

    There's nothing so enjoyable as watching mid-american tropical dictatorships duke it out. With luck, some of them are still flying Mustangs, Vampires or Mig 15s!

  16. lglethal Silver badge
    Flame

    God i hate this sort of thing...

    You started a war. You lost. The opposing nation took land in what WAS your territory. It is now how many hundreds of years later, and you want it back? Stiff! Thats what happens when you start a war and lose!

    Hell the Germans have significant claims to large parts of Poland, and the Czech republic, to you hear them asking for that back? What about the English demanding back Normandy from the French? Or maybe all of Europe should be given back to the Romans cause they took almost all of it over (except Scotland - good work their lads!). Or maybe go further - the greeks should get all the land conquered by Alexander the Great? Or Xerxes Persia?

    Geez it annoys me - if you get into a war, you may win, you may lose. Whatever land changes hand in the process is gone. The only time that the land should potentially be given back is if the people of that land that changed hands want to be reintegrated with the original country, but the Chileans in the disputed territory dont want that in this case, the falkland islanders dont want to be part of argentina either, so bloody well get over it. Start focusing on your countries own issues rather then firing up nationalist sentiment and hiding behind those flames!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What the?...

      Excuse-me, you surely meant that it's time for Normandy demanding back England? Who conquered who? The Royal Family motto is in who's language?

      Hight time to stop those crimes against gastronomy, too.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        "crimes against gastronomy?"

        The royal family are all Germans and their motto is French. So who is making these crimes?

        By your own arguments aren't you blaming the French?

        Personally I blame the land that invented aerosol cheese.

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