War and Peace

Good morning from Sucre, Bolivia! What a gorgeous day! There´s something about the briliiant sunshine at this altitude and the whitewashed buildings shining brightly that makes mornings here very special. It really makes me start my day with a smile and a spring in my step.

YesterdayI took a guided tour of the National Military Museum. They had weapons, uniforms, and other artifacts from what was described as Bolivia´s four wars. I found myself asking myself "four wars????". There was of course the war of independence from Spain in the 1820´s. Two of the other 3 wars were border disputes. One was a fight with Paraguay (the Chaco War), named after that part of Bolivia where the boundary line with Paraguay was in disupte. The irony here is that the boundary line was drawn in the dry infertile plains that separate the two countries.

The other border dispute was/is much more interesting. Historically it had never been clear just where Bolivia´s border on the west should be. Bolivia took the position that its border went down tothe sea, the Pacific Ocean. The only problem with this was that 70% of the people who lived there were Chileans, and communication with La Paz was poor at best. The only thing Bolivia ever did for the area was send tax collectors there to collect taxes from the saltpeter mines. Needless to say, they were not welcomed with a great deal of enthusiasm. The Bolivian government exacerbated matters by raising the tax. The chilenos refused to pay and called upon the Chilean government for help. The Chilean government was ready. In fact, they had been preparing for just such an excuse. They sent in the Army and occupied the territory. Bolivia sent an ill-equipped and poorly prepared army to the area. The Chileans beat the pants off the Bolivians with the result that, ever since, Bolivia is permanently landlocked. This battle is called in Bolivia the "War of the Pacific." I watched a propaganda movie at the museum featuring a young officer who kisses his bride goodbye and goes off to die a glorious death at the hands of the Chilenos in the cause of a greater Bolivia.

The tour guide saved what was planned to be the most moving part of the tour to the end. We were ushered into a room to see the thousands of letters written by school children all across Bolivia about 3 years ago to the UN asking that Bolivia have access to the Pacific Ocean. We were told emotionally that the letters, when laid end to end, cover several kilometers. Incredibly enough, Bolivia still has some token naval officers and the country even has a ship! It looks like a converted freighter which is permanently anchored in some Peruvian port. ("Save your confederate dollars; the Southwill riseagain!"). A unviersity student I met here says that some Bolivians still get upset at the idea of negotiating ANYTHING with the Chileans, since they can´t be trusted, etc. This is a recurring theme throughout South America. Each country distrusts the other ones and sees the other as being as foreign as Martians.

The Bolivian government is obviously trying to drum up popular support for Bolivia´s efforts to negotiate with Chile some sort of access to the sea. About the only product Bolivia can export is natural gas and they´re currently piping that to Brazil and Argentina. There have been informal talks with Chile for years over some sort of access. However, Chile does not seem overly anxious to accomodate the Bolivians. Bolivia doesn´t have the necessary political, economic or military clout to try to get Chile to change its mind.

All the exhibits on these 3 wars took up large spaces on the walls of a very large room. The fourth exhibit was barely 1 meter square and almost half-hidden behind the open door tothe room. This exhibit was labelled the "War Against the Guerillas," in which Che Guevara was killed. The tour guide was notably very reticent about this exhibit.The killing of revolutionary hero Che Guevara by the Bolivian Army, supported and financed by the CIA, is not exactly politically correct in today´s (almost) socialist Bolivia.