Former Bolivian President Paz Zamora urges Bolivia and Peru to invest in the port of Ilo

The former president of Bolivia Jaime Paz Zamora (1989-1993) urged the governments of his country and Peru to make the pending investments for the effective use of the Peruvian port of Ilo, when the 30th anniversary of the signing of the bilateral agreement on the use of that terminal in the Pacific Ocean is near.

Paz Zamora was, together with former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, the architect of the “Gran Mariscal Andrés de Santa Cruz” Friendship, Cooperation and Integration Agreement, signed by both on January 24, 1992 in Ilo and by which that town in southern Peru declared industrial free zone and free access for Bolivia.

The former Bolivian president, who lives in the southern region of Tarija, considered in a telephone interview with Efe that “the validity and convenience of this agreement is still valid” and that Ilo is “more than ever” a “very important” alternative that Bolivia should be used more profitably.”

“The step that corresponds to this agreement is that Peru and Bolivia make a greater effort to make an investment in the dimensions that the port of Ilo needs. This is pending,” he said.

Investing in Ilo would be of great benefit to both countries, since southern Peru is one of the least developed areas in that nation and a greater Bolivian presence would give it an important dynamic, he said.

The relevance

Paz Zamora stressed that the agreement was historic because it allowed a convergence between “two sister countries” that had not been seen since the time of Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz, who in 1836 united Bolivia and Peru in a confederation that was defeated three years later. by the Chilean Army.

The agreement established that Bolivians could access an industrial and commercial free zone in Ilo for 50 years and granted Bolivia ample facilities for the use of the port of Ilo, in addition to a tourist free zone for one hundred years in five kilometers of the coast of that location.

For Paz Zamora, the agreement was a mechanism that put into practice something that he tried to claim during his Government, the recovery of the Bolivian maritime quality lost in the Pacific war against Chile.

That maritime quality is “the possibility of being fully at sea, in the Pacific, beyond the abstract discussion of sovereignty or non-sovereignty, but acting, operating on the sea and I think Ilo allowed it,” he added.

some backstage

According to Paz Zamora, the inspiration for the agreement arose from the realization that historically, since pre-Hispanic times, the route traced to Ilo was the one used by the Aymaras and Incas to reach the sea from what was later known as Bolivian territory.

The former president commented that with Fujimori they decided to prepare the agreement in reserve so that Chile would not find out, considering that that country would not be interested “for reasons of history, economy and geography.”

“We had to do it in a very reserved way precisely because of the suspicion that this could mobilize Chilean interests to oppose it,” he confessed.

Thus, they met in a remote region of the Bolivian Amazon and informed the press that the meeting was to discuss border issues, “but in reality the objective was to achieve the Ilo agreements,” he explained.

Already in January 1992, the day the document was signed, enthusiasm was unleashed in Ilo, to the point that the then presidents ended up barefoot and with their pants rolled up to get into the water, Paz Zamora recalled.

Then they got on a Peruvian Navy boat for a ride and a wave almost flipped it over, causing the spare motor that was in the bow to slide to the other end, leaving a cut on Paz’s heel. Zamora, said the former ruler. “We had to hide it so there would not be much fuss,” he recalled.

According to Paz Zamora, it was the first time the Bolivian flag flew in the Pacific since the war against Chile.

Lag and projection

Of all that was agreed, the paved road from La Paz to Ilo was finalized, but later “the fragile institutionality” of both countries prevented the project from being addressed “as a strategic necessity,” he said.

“For example, in Bolivia, for political and ideological reasons, the government that succeeded me did not give it importance and tried to minimize the project. And a little for other reasons, something similar happened in Peru due to the fate of Fujimori,” he said.

Other Peruvian presidents, such as Alan García, had subsequent meetings with the Bolivians Carlos Mesa and Evo Morales, “but they were testimonial,” he added.

All in all, Paz Zamora believes that the future must be seen taking into account “the phenomenon of global trade” and the relevance of the Pacific Ocean in it.

The former president suggested jointly developing southern Peru and northern Chile so that countries like Brazil can reach Asia through the Pacific through Bolivia.