BORDERS: POLITICAL BORDERS
Colchane - Pisina

Border between Chile and Bolivia

The area of Colchane and Pisiga is an Aimara land 3730 AMSL in the Andean Altiplano. Now it is divided between Chile (Colchane) and Bolivia (Pisiga).


The border between Chile and Bolivia has an extention of 850 km. Along this line there are many villages and small towns in ravines about 4000 m AMSL.

The border are signed with milestones (hitos). There are about 80 crossing places but only Colchane has a regular control.


After the War of the Pacific (Spanish: Guerra del Pacífico: 1879-83 agains Chile, Bolivia become a landlocked country. The Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1904 determinated the current borders between the two countries. This document allowed the surrender of the Bolivian littoral zone and coasts in the Pacific Ocean. The border starts at Visviri (the boundary point for Bolivia, Chile and Peru) and ends at the Zapaleri mountain, which is a triple boundary point for Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. The main points of the boundary are the Licancabur and Ollagüe volcanos and the Payachata mountains.


(februari 2013 )
After 1904 Bolivia had claim the right to a sovereign corredor to the Pacific taking their cause to international level traying to engage the international comunity. Chile has maintained that following the Treaty of 1904 Chile and Bolivia do not have any territorial conflict as the borders were defined in this document.

The last "incident" between this two countries is the arrest by the Chilena police of three Bolivian young soldiers that crossed the border coming in the Chilean territory. The soldiers were in a mission following car smuglers. One soldier happened to shoot his weapon in the Chilean territory. This transgression caused an international incident betwwen the two countries.

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