There was the Pacific War back in the 19th century where Bolivia lost ocean access and both Peru and Bolivia lost valuable mining resources to Chile.
My Chilean employee (he’s hard to understand sometimes) claims there will be another war between these countries within two years, He says Chile has been preparing with the acquisition of 150 tanks, fighter planes from the US and three submarines. He says, when war breaks out he’s going back to Chile to fight.
I can’t find anything on this in the news. Can anyone confirm that hostilities are heating up in the region?
Nothing more to offer, other than I can’t wait to see how this turns out. Of course 150 tanks doesn’t seem like much, but then what does Bolivia have (it’s poor)? And what good are submarines if Bolivia, you know, doesn’t have any sea ports?
Bolivia hasn’t had a coup in 25 years? Jeez, they had something like 200 for the first 160 years of existence.
It would, indeed, be interesting if this turned into something. South American military action hasn’t been in the press much since the Falklands thing.
A related, if slightly hijacking, question. Since liberation from Spain and Portugal, has South America been relatively free of border wars? In the same time span, Europe was almost continuously at war in some place or other (IIRC).
Bolivia and Paraguay fought the Chaco War war in 1932-35. Ecuador and Peru had three border spats in the 20th Century, in 1941-42, in 1981, and in 1985. Argentina and Chile have at least come close to war over border disputes well into the 20th Century. (NOTE: Those are all Wikipedia links, so I suppose they could assert that Ecuador or Peru fought a war against the Care Bears by the time you click on 'em.)
A lot of Ecuadorians are still pissed about Peru grabbing about half of their country. Peru figured that the rest of the world was a bit preoccupied at the time, and wouldn’t care. Some maps that I saw while I was in Ecuador in 2002 still show the original border, and there are occasional skirmishes. There was a ceremonial transfer of some small plot of Peru (like 1 sq km) to appease Ecuador a few years ago, but my impression is that there’s no love lost.
What on earth does the Bolivian Navy do? I understand they have a few gunboats on lake Titicaca (love that name). What was the “Bird Shit War”? Didn’t Bolivia and Chile fight it out over a valuable deposit of guano (bird shit)?
Panama and Costa Rica fought a border skirmish in 1921 known as the Coto War. Panama more or less won in the field but was forced to surrender the territory under US pressure.
Not a border war exactly, but Panama tried to secede from Colombia several times during the 19th Century before finally managing to do it with US help in 1903. The country essentially became a US protectorate for decades after that.
Venezuela claims much of Guyana, but not quite all of it. This map shows the disputed area.
Suriname also claims parts of Guyana and French Guiana.
I believe that Guatemala has now formally renounced its claim to Belize, but when I was there in the 70s maps used to show Belize as a province of Guatemala.
You know Adm. Mahan’s concept of the “fleet in being”, Ralph?
That’s what they do.
Not so much to protect the Bolivian shores of Lake Titicaca from hypothetical Peruvian amphibious assaults, as to keep the Bolivian Navy in existence. For when Bolivia gets back its port city and needs one again, they have the rudiments of one, a cadre on which to build, trained.
Thanks for filling in the gaps, Colibrí. My only other comment is that although Oslo Ostragoth mentioned border disputes or lack thereof, Latin America’s ‘speciality’ has really been internal conflicts. No point in even listing examples - the challenge would be to name the few countries that haven’t.
The other half of Ralph’s question is a good one, too. The whole point behind the Chile/Bolivia/Peru conflict, insofar as I can tell, is that the Arica desert, the 2-3 provinces in northernmost Chile that were formerly Peruvian or Bolivian before the 1879-83 war, are the driest place on Earth. And as such, they have valuable mineral deposits, mostly evaporites, not readily available much of anywhere else. Phosphate and saltpeter from guano deposits were one but not the only such valuable natural resource found there.
I don’t understand why Chile should prepare for such a war. In comparison with its neighboring countries, Chile is in a really comfortable position - its economy is more highly developed, its growth rates higher, and the country is politically more stable. In international relations, Chile has a better reputation than Peru and Bolivia - some Western media were critical of Bachelet when she was elected, but compared to Morales and his pro-Chávez line and the instable situation in Peru, the Chilean government has some support in North America and Europe. Why should they risk this situation and lose international support just for the chance of annexing some Peruvian and Bolivian regions which are, economically and with respect to infrastructure, less developed than mainland Chile? I don’t see the point of fighting such a war.
From my conversation as per the OP, I gathered that Chile was not looking for more land, but preparing for inevitable agression from Peru and Bolivia. (We got into this discussion when he told me he was cold and I told him he didn’t know what cold was. He told me that he experienced really cold weather from winds coming from Bolivia)
Now this guy is a very mild mannered family man who has lived on the coast of British Columbia for 15 years. I was taken aback by his enthusiasm (bring it on Bolivia, we are not giving it back) for the “impending” war, but it could have been just hyperbole. On the other hand its just as likely that he’s not alone in that bellicose attitude.
Chile has a history of consistently renewing and rebuilding its military apparatus and keeping current with training and tactics, vs. its neighbors’ usual pattern of armament binges when the cash flow’s good, followed by prolonged periods of letting it rust away. As far as I understand the strategic picture right now, Chile already outguns and outclasses anything Bolivia can bring to bear in a conventional set-piece battle, their real concern in that sense would be Perú joining in… which would be a bizarre thing for Perú to do, as it would make no sense for the moderate-leftist García administration to take time off its own problems to throw its lot with radical-populist Evo Morales against a Chile led by moderate-leftist Bachelet.
Now, Evo may have a motivation for whipping up an exernal enemy, in order to deal with internal issues and he may actually be making aggressive noises but the restiveness in his eastern provinces, where all his gas wells are located, may not necessarily be pacified by the idea of rallying ‘round the flag for the sake of the Pacific coast. Plus a number of Chileans may be predisposed to a mentality of “OMG it’s true, Evo’s in with Chavez in a plot to conquer South America!” in which Evo is playing a grand chess by which where it would be entirely realistic that at the first sign of weakness from Bachelet it leads to the Chilean military taking things into their own hands again, and in one fell swoop you’ve undone the last 20 years of progress and “proven” that conventional liberalism fails and the only hope is people’s revolution. :dubious: But IMO neither Perú nor Bolivia would have much to gain in real-world terms from attacking Chile in the near future other than home-market PR at the cost of recruits’ blood. Last time a lower South American regime using some moldy old dispute to whip up popular support actually tried attacking, the results were quite not what the leaders expected…
