With gas, Bolivia hopes to regain sea access

This is an interesting development.

President Carlos Mesa said Bolivia is prepared to sell natural gas to Chile as long as its neighbour agrees to give this landlocked nation access to the Pacific Ocean, a Bolivian goal ever since it lost its coastline to Chile in a 19th century war.

President Carlos Mesa
Mesa said Bolivia may use its mammoth natural gas reserves to become “the energy axis of South America” — and is willing to share its wealth with Chile if the two can agree on a “solution to our maritime problem.”
“There will be no real regional integration unless Chile agrees to work with Bolivia to solve the matter of or maritime demand,” Mesa said in a speech during a ceremony marking the “Day of Sea,” a local celebration.

Bolivia lost its coastline in a 1879-83 war with Chile, and has since kept an international campaign to press for its demand to recover access to the Pacific Ocean — possibly by getting control of a strip of Chilean territory that runs to the coast.

Chile refuses to cede control of any part of its land, saying a 1904 bilateral treaty solved all territorial matters with Bolivia. The two countries do not have diplomatic relations due to the dispute.

MercoPress

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Coup attempt in Bolivia?

......... by Luis Gomez April 23, 2004

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, APRIL 17 2004: It wasn't a secret, but for a while, nobody was paying attention: there are groups plotting to destabilize the government of President Carlos Mesa, that are considering a coup d'etat in order to finalize the sale of Bolivian gas to Chile despite the outpouring of popular will against such a deal expressed in last October's insurrection.

Of course, U.S. government officials have a lot to do with it (beginning with the Viceroy David N. Greenlee, his friends in the CIA, and even officials from the gringo agency USAID). It took a counterintelligence memo, put together by confidential Bolivian and Chilean sources, specifically accusing those foreign companies and politicians - to bring this matter to light. Then Congressman Evo Morales denounced the coup attempt, and the questions began.

Yes, kind readers, the social movements also do counterintelligence work. But, let's take this piece-by-piece.

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As you can see, kind readers, what began here in Bolivia in October 2003 has not yet finished. Or, as the Bolivian social leaders claim, "foreign groups, linked to the banks and oil companies, are putting together an entire strategy for a new stage of domination over the Bolivian people." And among the ironies of fate, it is important to remember (and to remind) the current president of Chile, the "socialist" Ricardo Lagos, in whose own country the socialist government of Salvador Allende was toppled by Augusto Pinochet in a very similar political project. It is impossible to know, today, if Lagos remembers the massacres ordered by the dictator and the exile of many Chileans, including himself. or whether perhaps today he has adopted his enemies' brutal practices as his own. We will have to be on alert, because this new attack on democracy and against the social movements in Latin America is barely beginning, and, unfortunately, we are going to have much more to report in that respect.

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<link> http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=5388