SANTIAGO – The Chilean government hopes that Pope Francis will refrain from mentioning the issue of the maritime demand of Bolivia during the trip he will make to the South American country from January 15 to 18, says Chilean ambassador to the Holy See, Mariano Fernández.
The ambassador and former Chilean foreign minister explained in a meeting with the media earlier this week that the authorities ask of Pope Francis what they also expect from all public opinion: “That they refrain from giving their opinion” pending the expression of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
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In 2013, the government of Evo Morales sued Chile before the Court of The Hague to have an outlet to the Pacific Ocean, which lost in a war in the nineteenth century.
Fernandez explained that in the Vatican “there is a perfect understanding of the subject” and proof of this is that since the Pope spoke on his trip to Bolivia in 2015 of maritime demand, the Holy See has not referred to it again.
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Jorge Bergoglio, in his speech to civil society at the Cathedral of La Paz in July 2015, called for dialogue to “avoid conflicts with the sister countries” and added: “I’m thinking about the sea. Dialogue, dialogue. ”
The Pope will travel from January 15 to 21 next to Chile and Peru in what will be his fifth trip to Latin America.–MercoPress
