Chile to tighten ties with Bolivia and Peru

[bemildred]

Chile is prepared to restore diplomatic relations with Bolivia and sign a free trade accord with Peru regardless of who wins that country’s presidential election, the foreign minister said in comments published yesterday.

The five-week-old government of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet also will work to promote regional integration in South America, Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley told the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio.

Chile has historically had strained relations with the two countries, having defeating a Peru-Bolivia alliance in two wars in the 1800s.

Since 1978, Chile has not had diplomatic relations with landlocked Bolivia, which lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the second of those wars and has been seeking to recover it ever since.

MercoPRess

[Judi Lynn]

1. This will be remarkable, if it works. Mending friendships with Peru

and Bolivia would be real progress, wouldn't it? A lack of communication among the countries has always benefited U.S. interests, as they weren't able to present a united front against corporations, backed by U.S. right-wing Presidents, whose interest was in maximum exploitation.

I'm hoping to hear it's working, and that any attempt from _Bush to keep real Latin American unity from happening will fail completely.

[bemildred]

2. This is a good thing in a number of ways.

But most of all because Ms Bachelet feels secure enough to take the initiative on better relations. This seems to offer support to Evo and Humala, too. There are some nasty issues involved, so I don't expect any dramatic agreements soon.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Yes, yes, yes! I felt this coming. Michele Batchelet was tortured by

US-backed dictator Pinochet. She is the first woman president of Chile. She is a socialist. She is not about to let a conflict created by white male oligarchs, 125 years ago, get in the way of peace and justice NOW. Regional Latin American cooperation is essential to preventing future Pinochets, and to Latin America's recovery from decades of US and global corporate predator interference. I'm sure she knows this and WILL find a way to settle the coastal access dispute with Bolivia. Interestingly, she was recently visited by Condoleeza Rice. I would like to have been a fly on the wall at THAT meeting--between a now powerful victim of US horror in South America, who is part of a huge leftist revolution sweeping the continent, and Ms. Dracula, apologist for Chevron and the Bush junta.

:woohoo:

[roody]

4. One of her first actions was to

make hospital care free to senior citizens.