130 years later, a sense of defeatism still dominates Bolivia

It couldn’t be otherwise. Today marks the 130th anniversary of Bolivia’s loss of access to the Pacific when, after a short expansionist war motivated by Chile’s desire for nitrates, Bolivia was left landlocked at the heart of South America. The fact that, years later, rich copper deposits were found in the conquered land only sealed the fate of Bolivian demands in the international stage that have gone from demands to return this land, to appeals for some form of access to the sea.
Not a sausage. Chilean-Bolivian diplomatic relations have been severed since 1962 on account of this single issue. Although Michele Bachelet and Evo Morales have managed to maintain the most productive and cordial relations between presidents of these two countries for generations, nobody assumes a quick resolution will soon be found to this most intractable problem.
But if the loss of access to the sea is still an issue that permeates Bolivian collective consciousness, it is by no means the only war that affects national identity. For Bolivia has been involved in few wars throughout history but has lost all of them and, in the process, has lost about half of the country’s original territory and the vast natural resources that accompanied them.
At the turn of the twentieth century, it was the northern region of Acre that, due to the rubber boom, found itself in the mire of Brazil and eventually seceded from Bolivia. But the war that marked a turning point for Bolivia was the war of el Chaco (1932-35) with Paraguay, another terrible and costly defeat that discredited the rule of traditional elites and marked the beginning of a sense of consciousness amongst the indigenous majority sent to fight.
Countries tend to create an imaginary view of themselves often based on successful military campaigns. For Bolivia, unfortunately, the last century only serves to reinforce a pervasive sense of humiliation, exploitation and pillage of natural resources, commenced with the Spanish exploitation of Potosi in the 16th century.

Juancito Pinto el tamborrero y el bono que lleva su nombre or an Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) with a difference

They say that Juancito Pinto was a 12 year-old drummer who took part, like many other children of yesteryear and of today, in the Pacific War that in 1880 saw Chile easily defeat Bolivian forces annexing Bolivia’s coastline and access to the sea.

This national tragedy cemented the country’s sense of identity and Bolivia’s highest foreign policy priority — recovering access to the sea — ever since. For Juancito Pinto, it meant his death when after seeing his friends killed, he chose to abandon his drum and take a weapon. It also meant his rebirth, many years later, as a national hero whose name today is symbol of a different campaign to ensure that every child attends school in Bolivia.

It is a tall order since as UN figures show, secondary education enrolment levels are below 70 percent, a problem that affects girls in even higher numbers. What the Bono Juancito Pinto does is give each school child up to grade 8, 200 bolivianos (around $ 30) at the end of each year providing they meet a minimum attendance requirement.

It is a key form of economic support that erodes the need for work, a need omnipresent in the streets of La Paz where children as young as nine are seen working as shoe shines, street sellers or as fare collectors in private minibuses.

In this regard, the Bono Juancito pinto shares its aims with the British Educational Maintenance Allowance for secondary school children who qualify according to a means test criteria. It is, in the President’s words, part of the country’s effort towards achieving the goal of ‘vivir bien’, literally ‘living well’ (another entry on vivir bien to follow soon).