Bolivian President Says Boric’s Triumph “Strengthens” Democracy

The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, greeted this Sunday the triumph in Chile of Gabriel Boric after beating the conservative José Antonio Kast in the presidential ballot and considered that with this “Latin American democracy is strengthened.”

“We salute the electoral triumph of @gabrielboric, which is the triumph of the Chilean people. Latin American democracy is strengthened based on unity, respect and, above all, the will of our peoples “Arce wrote on Twitter.

The Bolivian president finished his message by accompanying it with a photograph of the winning candidate with an effusive “Congratulations to the president-elect of #Chile!”

Boric, 35, won the right-wing lawyer with 55.8% of the votes closet, which obtained 44.1%, with more than 99% of the polls scrutinized.

closet, a 55-year-old Catholic lawyer with a strong anti-immigration rhetoric and leader of the Republican Party, acknowledged his defeat with half the months scrutinized.

The victory of Boric, considered the most leftist president since the overthrown Salvador Allende (1973-1990), arouses interest in Bolivia for what could represent a new stage in bilateral relations due to the ideological affinity with the Government of Arce and his party the Movimiento al Socialismo ( MORE).

Bolivia and Chile have not had relations at the level of ambassadors since 1978 and both countries recently went through a tense relationship due to the demand that the former raised in 2013 before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for a sovereign exit to the Pacific Ocean.

In 2018 that court established that Chile It has no obligation to negotiate a sovereign exit to the sea, as Bolivia argued based on the rapprochement that both countries had after a war at the end of the 19th century that established the current borders.

Another lawsuit filed by the trans-Andean country for the rights in the use of Silala waters and the opposing view of whether it is an international spring or river remains to be settled in the ICJ, in addition to a counterclaim filed by Bolivia on this issue.

Some senior Bolivian government officials expressed some sympathy for Boric in the pre-electoral stage while others argued that the relationship with Chile should focus on common issues and interests, despite the fact that the Bolivian demand for an exit to the Pacific is “Inalienable”.

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