Chilean Government expresses its surprise and categorically rejects the allegations made by the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, who accused our country of infringing the statutory provisions of the International Court of Justice.
The part who is not respecting the Court rules and the principles of sound administration of justice is the Bolivian Government, who, contradicting the court dispositions, has repeatedly discussed the case regarding the "obligation to negotiate an access to the Pacific Ocean" in many different international forums, even manufacturing a detailed book explaining the arguments exposed in their memorial. When a case is being studied by the International Court of Justice it is not allowed to talk about it in instances other than the Court.
Chilean Government hopes that, in the future, Bolivian government will abstain from openly discussing the case in international forums and will respect the Court rules.
Chile respects the Court disposition that forbids the disclosure of the contents of both the Memorial and Counter memorial until the beginning of the oral phase of the process. However, this decree does not prevent the parties from explaining and informing the public opinion about the cases that are pending in the International Court of Justice and the rights that are being fought for before this Institution.
Bolivian Government commits an inexcusable fault when blaming Chile of disclosing contents of the Memorial that we presented in from of the International Court of Justice regarding the Silala River case. Chile's arguments, submitted by the national authorities, have been public knowledge since the Application, which was presented to the International Court on June 6, 2016. Said document was published by the International Court of Justice on their website and can be fully examined in the following link: http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/162/19020.pdf
Chilean Government expects that the Bolivian Government ceases with its double discourse and the growing hostilities towards out country, stops politicizing said cases and just presents arguments in front of the International Court of Justice, while fully respecting the rules of said tribunal for the pacific resolution of the existing disputes.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017