8 CultureShock! Bolivia
Bolivians continue to lament this injustice, with largely
ineffective diplomatic attempts to regain even a portion of
what was taken. In 1979, a meeting of the Organization of
American States (OAS) in La Paz was on the verge of passing
a breakthrough resolution favouring Bolivia on this issue,
until an obscure colonel, Alberto Natusch Busch, chose that
precise moment for a bloody military coup, sending OAS
representatives scurrying to the airport to fl ee the city, and
leaving the resolution in shreds.
The issue remained in suspended animation until
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez declared, in November of
2003, “I dream of swimming in a Bolivian beach,” prompting
interest in the issue from Brazilian and Peruvian diplomats,
as well as the UN’s Kofi Annan.
Regaining their sea coast has been thought of as a partial
answer to Bolivia’s economic woes, but Chile continues
to reject international negotiations, instead calling this a
binational issue.
As a consolation, Bolivia’s location in the core of South
America could one day make her an ideal hub for land-based
commerce between any of the fi ve surrounding countries,
including industrialised Brazil and Chile.
A more practical infrastructure of paved highways and
basic facilities beyond the main routes and cities will help
both locals and visitors to travel more comfortably from
one place to another. But we’re not talking about a system
of motorways and fast food restaurants. Bolivia will not lose
her status as one of the last frontiers in the world. Dense
mountains, compact valleys, virtually impenetrable jungles
and vast, sparsely populated expanses will not allow this
core of South America to become a nation of strip malls and
traffi c clover leafs.
By 2005, Bolivia’s population exceeded nine million,
within a territory that is more than triple the size of Great
Britain. Like Australia and Canada, Bolivia has room to take
in excess people from overpopulated areas. But where would
one put them?
Not too many folks have opted for homesteading in the
country’s vast, steamy Amazonian region, nor on its chilly,