Day of the Sea

Today the landlocked nation of Bolivia commemorates the Day of the Sea, or more accurately, the national goal of regaining the sovereign access to the Pacific that it lost 128 years ago today.

It was on this day in 1879 that Chilean troops seized Bolivia's last shoreline and the country never got control of it again. In Bolivia, this is not the stuff of ancient history.

School children are taught early on "that Bolivia must regain its sea." School celebrations of Bolivian independence often feature children dressed in the traditional costumes of each of the nation's nine departments, including a tenth dressed in black and in chains for "El Departamento Littoral" – the sea. La Paz hosts a museum dedicated exclusively to the sea and its loss.

The spark of the gas revolt here in October 2003 was not just the popular belief that President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was about engineer another bargain sell-off of Bolivia's gas and oil, but that the deal involved selling it through Chile. The two countries still do not have complete formal diplomatic relations.

Certainly, the Bolivian dream these days is a "Sea for Gas" deal in which Chile would grant Bolivia some form of unfettered access to a port to call its own, in exchange for being part of a gas export deal. It would be the South American equivalent of a "Land for Peace" swap in the Middle East and Evo Morales pulling it off would be the South American equivalent of Nixon going to China, sort of.

All of this may be a dream for Bolivia, or at least something a long way from being realized, but you have to give Bolivia and Bolivians credit for never giving up on the demand to reverse an injustice done to the nation more than a century ago.