Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay: neighbors, for better or for worse

four of the southernmost countries in latin america, the core of what's known as the "southern cone" (after the shape of the continent in those latitudes), all led by left-leaning presidents, two of them newly-elected, are facing the challenge of how to work together effectively...



Left to right, the flags of Argentina,
Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay

michelle bachelet, chile's new president, began her courtesy calls with a 24-hour visit to buenos aires...

Both host President Néstor Kirchner and his visitor went out of their way to avoid potential conflicts at this early stage . . .

but, like it or not, chile and argentina are joined at the hip...

• 400,000 of Chile's citizens are living in Argentina (half of all Chileans living abroad)

• Chile has 14 billion dollars invested in Argentina (almost half of all Chilean investments abroad)

• The two countries annually conduct 5.4 billion dollars of bilateral trade (with a surplus of 4.2 billion in Argentina’s favour)

• Chile and Argentina share one of the world’s longest frontiers (some 5,300 kilometres)

enter bolivia... with a major transition underway in bolivia following the recent election of evo morales, both argentina and chile share a concern over the future of their energy supplies...

• Both presidents fully realize that the key to the Southern Cone’s gas future lies with Bolivia (South America’s second producer)

and, if the scenario weren't already complicated enough, uruguay, which imports natural gas from both argentina and bolivia, has been engaged in an ongoing conflict with argentina over the building of two new paper-pulp mills on the rio uruguay that many argentinians believe will lead to serious environmental damage... traffic roadblocks between argentina and uruguay put up by argentinians protesting the construction of the plants were recently ordered to be taken down, but only after serious economic damage had been inflicted by stemming the annual flow of argentine summer tourists to uruguay's beaches...

Uruguay stands far more in line for gas delivery cuts this coming winter than Chile (the chief victim last year) due to the pulp mill dispute (in which Chile is ambivalent because it has delivered materials to the construction sites of Uruguay’s mills but has banned pulp mills on its own soil out of anxiety for its salmon stocks).

maintaining good will and continuing serious discussion are the keys to building solid, mutually beneficial relationships... if these four countries can pull it off, they will be setting the bar for the entire continent and will demonstrate to the rest of the world what self-sufficiency looks like...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet