Bolivia wants a coastline

getting a small chunk of pacific coastline probably wouldn't solve many of bolivia's problems, but it would go a long way toward boosting morale [AND morales] and restoring national pride, both of which bolivia badly needs...

[A] map on the wall from 1859 show[s] Bolivia with almost twice its current territory and a swath of Pacific coastline.

Today’s maps show that coast as part of Chile, thanks to the 1879 conflict known as the War of the Pacific, or the Saltpeter War, which helped cement Chile as a regional power and, some here say, put Bolivia on the path to becoming South America’s poorest nation.

In a diplomatic push combining nostalgia and shrewd nationalist politics, President Evo Morales has begun lobbying to regain a small part of that coastline for Bolivia. The navy, which patrols Bolivia’s rivers and the waters of Lake Titicaca, finds itself in the middle of this quest.

Mr. Morales took the spotlight at the summit meeting of the Nonaligned Movement of countries this month in Havana, where he led a parallel meeting of a 31-member organization called the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries. Members include countries like Bhutan, Burkina Faso and Moldova. [Note from profmarcus: add in Macedonia and, with the recent separation of Montenegro, Serbia]

“We hope in the near future to be able to leave this group,” Mr. Morales told delegates in Havana.

Notwithstanding Chile’s historic intransigence to cede even one inch of its territory to Bolivia, such comments play well in Bolivia, where textbooks portray that 1879 war as a Chilean land grab, and where each May the nation commemorates a Day of the Sea.

i keep waiting for the latin american countries to figure out that it's infinitely better to work TOGETHER than constantly squabbling with each other... sovereignty and national pride can be a real pain in the ass, as at least SOME of us in the u.s. are painfully finding out...

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