Bolivia traditionally has maintained normal diplomatic relations with all hemispheric states except Chile. Relations with Chile, strained since Bolivia's defeat in the War of the Pacific (1879-83) and its loss of the coastal province of Atacama, were severed from 1962 to 1975 in a dispute over the use of the waters of the Lauca River . Relations were resumed in 1975 but broken again in 1978 over the inability of the two countries to reach an agreement that might have granted Bolivia a sovereign access to the sea. In the 1960s, relations with Cuba were broken following Castro's rise to power but resumed under the Paz Estenssoro Administration in 1985.

Bolivia pursues a foreign policy with a heavy economic component. Bolivia has become more active in the Organization of American States (OAS), the Rio Group, and in MERCOSUR, with which it signed an association agreement in 1996. Bolivia promotes its policies on sustainable development and the empowerment of indigenous people. Bolivia is a member of the United Nations and some of its specialized agencies and related programs; OAS; Andean Community; INTELSAT; Non-Aligned Movement; International Parliamentary Union; Latin American Integration Association (ALADI); World Trade Organization; Rio Treaty; Rio Group; MERCOSUR; and Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia (URUPABOL, restarted in 1993). As an outgrowth of the 1994 Summit of the Americas, Bolivia hosted a hemispheric summit conference on sustainable development in December 1996. A First Ladies' hemispheric summit was also hosted by Bolivia that same month.

International disputes

Bolivia has wanted a sovereign corridor to the South Pacific Ocean since the Atacama area was lost to Chile in 1884; dispute with Chile over Rio Lauca water rights.

Since the accession of Carlos Mesa to the Presidency, Bolivia has presses its demands for a corridor to the Pacific. In March of 2004, Mesa announced that the government would stage a series of public rallies across the country and in Bolivian embassies abroad in remembrance of those who died in the War of the Pacific, and to call for Chile to grant Bolivia a seacoast.

Mesa has made this demand a cornerstone of his administration's policy, and many analysts believe that if he does not get this corridor, he will be forced from office.

Illicit drugs

Bolivia is the world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Peru and Colombia) with an estimated 218 km² under cultivation in 1999, a 45% decrease in overall cultivation of coca from 1998 levels; intermediate coca products and cocaine exported to or through Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to the United States and other international drug markets; alternative crop program aims to reduce illicit coca cultivation

Reference

Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.

See also : Bolivia