Silala: Bolivia admitted that waters also have international course

  A communiqué of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of February 2020 informed that Bolivia admitted, in the counter-memorial presented before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that part of the waters of the Silala flow naturally towards Chile. With this criterion, the former Bolivian agent before the court in The Hague Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé and the current Chilean agent Ximena Fuentes agree separately.

In an interview to Los Tiempos, Rodríguez Veltzé affirmed that the scientific results on the disputed waters were characterizing the Silala "as an international watercourse". Meanwhile, Fuentes declared last week to CNN that the country changed its position during the development of the process and ended up accepting that the Silala is a river of international course.

The statement of the Foreign Ministry, then in charge of Karen Longaric, clarifies that the litigation before the ICJ began during the government of Evo Morales and in their "procedural acts" (counter-memorial) they admit that part of the waters of the Silala flows naturally to Chile.

The pleadings in the Silala dispute between Chile and Bolivia begin this April 1 at the Peace Palace in The Hague and will continue for the next 14 days.

According to Rodríguez Veltzé, "as reported to the Chancellery and the relevant authorities, the results of the scientific work and its contrast were revealing a high percentage of coincidences on the characterization of the Silala as an international watercourse according to the definition and characteristics of the repeated UN Convention. These findings and other aspects, such as the treatment of the works as canals that artificially alter the flow towards Chile, marked the terms of the answer, the counterclaim and its consideration for the judicial or extrajudicial understandings that attend the controversy".

For Fuentes, Bolivia recognizes that Chile is somewhat right when it replies (in the counter-memorial) and in reality what it wants to say is that "I recognize that it is an international river that, effectively, due to the slope of the terrain, these waters, which, effectively, are born from springs and then form a river that naturally crosses the border and enters Chilean territory. Up to that point one could have said that the Silala case is over, because the Chilean position was accepted by the counterpart", detailed Fuentes.

Spring or river?

Chile filed on June 6, 2016, under the second government of Michelle Bachelet, a lawsuit against Bolivia before the ICJ for it to declare that the Silala is an international watercourse and that Chile, as a riparian, has the right to the use of its waters.

 However, Bolivia's initial position was that the waters of the Silala are natural springs that were artificially diverted by Chile.

Andrónico will not travel to The Hague

The president of the Senate, Andrónico Rodríguez, informed that he will not travel to The Hague to attend the hearings at the International Court of Justice on the Silala. He assured that Bolivia maintains its position that the disputed waters are not an international river as stated by Chile.

"We have mentioned and we assure that it is not an international river, but that its waters come from springs located in Potosí (...), which flow down to the towns of northern Chile, through artificial canalizations", said Rodríguez.

The legislator insisted on the issue: "We are sure that the origin of the waters is a spring, it is not an international river".