Chile, Bolivia to launch joint border teams during Pope’s visit

SANTIAGO – Chile and Bolivia will collaborate in border areas on the visit of Pope Francis next January.

Customs officials of both nations, which have already held contacts several times this year in a new stage of bilateral cooperation, met again at the border of Colchane, about 2,000 km from Santiago.

In a press release, they established the joint plan to be implemented by both Customs offices ‘on the occasion of the Holy Father’s visit in January to Iquique’.

The Chilean and Bolivian authorities agreed to designate teams with customs operators to carry out the border control tasks during His Holiness stay in Iquique on January 18.

The issue is aimed in particular at thousands of Bolivians and hundreds of Peruvians who will cross the border to take part in the mass that will officiate the highest authority of the Vatican on a beach near Iquique.