Chile warns against dividing their territory over petition of Bolivia in the OAS

BOLIVIAN CORRIDOR • In his speech bolivian Chancellor David Choquehuanca had accused to Chile of being "rigid and inflexible" to the demands of his country and called on nations of the OAS to participate as witnesses of any new attempt to negotiate.

By EUGEN ROXAS / The Achacachi Post^®

Chile's Foreign Minister, Alfredo Moreno and Bolivian Chancellor David Choquehuanca. Photo © ERBOL ®

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador .— Chile's foreign minister, Alfredo Moreno, said in El Salvador that his country is willing to negotiate with Bolivia the landlocked, but warned it would not accept a solution that involves "splitting" the Chilean territory.

Moreno was responding to his Bolivian counterpart, David Choquehuanca, who as part of the 41st General Assembly of the OAS in San Salvador had urged him to start a dialogue "formal and inmediate" to solve the problem faced by the two nations since 132 years ago.

"The bolivian claim to gain access to the Pacific Ocean through territories that constitute an indivisible part of Chile, is unfortunately not possible or acceptable for my country nor the international legal order."

"There is no example of other countries in the world who have done something like (...) dividing the territory (…)"

Bolivia's Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca speaks during a press conference at the 41st General Assembly of the Organization of the American States (OAS) in San Salvador, El Salvador, Tuesday June 7, 2011. Photo © AP® / Luis Romero

In his speech, minutes earlier, bolivian Chancellor Choquehuanca had accused to Chile of being "rigid and inflexible" to the demands of his country and called on nations of the OAS to participate as witnesses of any new attempt to negotiate.

In this regard, Moreno rejected such a possibility, saying "no member of OAS can claim the right to intervene in bilateral conflicts " and for that reason Chile has always objected to the Bolivian issue is brought to the meetings of the OAS.

Source: LA PRENSA GRAFICA^®