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- BBC News World
image source, Archyde.com
Boric visited Chile’s northern border on Wednesday.
The migratory crisis situation in the north of Chile has provoked a confrontation between the governments of Santiago and Bolivia.
Chilean President, Gabriel Boricasked the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela to receive the migrants deported by the Chilean authorities, amid new measures to reduce the irregular entry of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, through the northern border of Chile.
Two weeks after decreeing the militarization of key areas on the border that Chile shares with Bolivia and Peru, Boric this week visited the highland town of Colchane, located two kilometers from Bolivian territory, and one of the steps most used by migrants to enter Chilean territory.
“Our priority is to protect the border to ensure a migration that is regular, safe and orderly,” said Boric, who warned that one of the obstacles that hinders the deportation of those who commit crimes is that the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela do not receive expelled persons.
This has generated a dispute, above all with Bolivia, with which Chile maintains a tense historical relationship.
At BBC Mundo we explain 4 keys to understanding the friction between Santiago and La Paz due to the flow of Venezuelan migrants.
1. What is the situation in the north of Chile
Chilean authorities estimate that some 21,553 people entered Chile last year through Colchane, a border commune in the northern Tarapacá region of 1,680 inhabitants.
In addition to Venezuelans, the Colchane authorities affirm that the arrival of people from countries such as Colombia, Haiti and El Salvador has also increased.
For this reason, since the end of February more than 600 soldiers are deployed in the area to collaborate in immigration control.
image source, Archyde.com
The military search migrants at a checkpoint in Colchane.
Among the attributions of the uniformed officers are identity controls, baggage search -if there is a presumption of crime-, and in certain circumstances warning shots, with the aim of dissuading people who cross the border through unauthorized steps.
Boric pointed out that the objective of this strategy is “to reverse the prolonged absence of the State in this area, with more resources and better tools.”
The Chilean ruler announced improvements to the Colchane border complex, with greater comforts for his officials, as well as new thermal cameras and a satellite communication system “to double the capacity for remote detection and monitor currently uncontrolled areas.”
The improvements will be extended to six other observation points in the Antofagasta regions, as well as Arica, in the far north of the country and which also borders Peru.
According to estimates by Javier García, the mayor of Coclchane, the country receives at least 400 undocumented people a day through the border area where the town is located, one of the most used crossings by foreigners to enter Chile.
2. What is the Boric government asking for?
The Chilean president assured that a priority for his government will be expedite dialogues with the authorities of Bolivia and Venezuela so that they receive the people who are expelled.
“Our neighboring countries, and in particular Bolivia, are not carrying out the redirection of Venezuelan and Colombian citizens who enter through the Colchane border and who are not received by the place where they enter, and we have to solve that“, he claimed.
Boric insisted that his government will launch “intense” diplomatic activity with La Paz and Caracas so that they receive deported citizens.
The expulsion of a foreign citizen can have a cost of more than US$3,000, the head of the local Chilean migration service recently explained.
image source, Getty Images
Migrants visit Colchane on their way into Chile
However, the president warned that it is not just a matter of resources.
“It is a problem that the airspace in Venezuela is not opened“, he indicated. “The administrative procedures to be able to carry out expulsion procedures are very cumbersome.”
Despite this, he qualified that “it is not a matter of escalating problems, but of seeking solutions, that is the spirit of the Chilean government, there are efforts for dialogue.”
Boric said that he will soon meet “with different friendly presidents from Latin America” such as Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), Alberto Fernández (Argentina), Xiomara Castro (Honduras), Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Luis Arce (Bolivia).
“One of the issues that we are going to deal with is precisely this,” he said.
From his Twitter account, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil ruled out that the government of President Nicolás Maduro had received a “request for coordinated work with the Chilean government regarding alleged deportations of Venezuelans.”
The United Nations Refugee Agency estimates that more than 7.1 million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years “to flee violence, insecurity, threats, and the lack of food, medicine, and essential services.”
3. What is the position of Bolivia
The Bolivian government rejected Boric’s claims and claimed that there is no bilateral agreement for the “redirection of migrants.”
“Regarding the fact that Bolivia would not be carrying out the redirection of citizens from other countries, understanding this as the expulsion from Chilean territory, there is no agreement, agreement or bilateral instrument that generates said obligation“, replied the Bolivian vice chancellor, Freddy Mamani.
image source, Getty Images
The government of President Luis Arce rejected Boric’s statements.
“The renewal procedure to which President Boric refers is a Chilean regulation that does not generate any type of international obligation,” he added.
Mamani insisted that the position of the Arce government is that “These issues must be addressed with the authorities of the nationalities of the migration of originavoiding the negative stigmatization of the migrant and any action that may violate human rights”.
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales joined the rejection of the Arce government and warned on his Twitter account that he regretted Boric’s “unilateral position” towards migrants who are victims of the US economic blockades against Venezuela.”
He assured that “the so-called ‘redirection’ with militarization and without bilateral coordination is forcing expulsion with stigmatization.”
4. The tense relations between Chile and Bolivia
During his claim for the situation of Venezuelan migrants, the Chilean president recalled that Chile and Bolivia have not had diplomatic relations since 1978when the last ties between the two countries were broken due to the Bolivian demand for access to the sea.
The main disagreement resides in the Bolivian claim to recover 400 kilometers of coastline and 128,000 square kilometers of territory that it lost at the hands of its neighbor during the War of the Pacific.
The current territorial delimitation was established in a treaty signed in 1904, which stated that Chilean sovereignty extends to the border with Peru and that of Bolivia does not reach the sea.
image source, AFP
Protests demanding “Sea for Bolivia” and an exit to the Pacific are frequent in the Andean country.
However, in the document Bolivia is granted in perpetuity a broad and free right of commercial transit through Chilean territory and through the Pacific ports.
Chile insists that, thanks to that treaty, Bolivia has duty-free access to the Chilean port of Arica, in the north of the country. He also remembers that he paid for and built a railway that links Arica with La Paz.
For this reason, the Chilean authorities reject the idea that their position affects the economic development of their neighbor.
Bolivia, however, considers that the 1904 agreement is deeply unfair and lacking in solidarity, and demands to obtain at least a corridor that extends from its border with Chile to the Pacific, where industrial and commercial activity can be carried out under its flag.
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