MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile summons ambassador in Lima over limit dispute

Chile summoned home its ambassador to Peru for consultations amid a growing dispute over the countries maritime boundary and lucrative fishing grounds. Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley said Ambassador Cristian Barros was due in Santiago Thursday or Friday “for a long conversation”.

Foxley did not elaborate, but summing an ambassador is a way governments show displeasure over actions of other countries. Peru on Wednesday asked the United Nation's highest judicial organ, the International Court of Justice, to rule on the maritime boundary, arguing that no legal line exists. Peru argues the line should run southwesterly from the coast. Chile, to the south, insists treaties in 1952 and 1954 set the boundary running due west. Chile's government issued a statement on Wednesday saying that Peru is actually claiming fishing-rich areas in the Pacific Ocean "that are unquestionably under Chilean sovereignty and jurisdiction". By taking the case to the court in The Hague, Peru "fails to recognize valid treaties existing between the two countries and also fails to recognize the practice of decades of implementation of those treaties" the Chilean government statement added. Chile's relations with neighboring Peru and Bolivia have often been strained by disputes stemming from the 1879-1884 War of the Pacific, in which Chile was the undisputed victor and seized territory from both neighbors, including Bolivia's only coastline. Foxley said the World Court case could last six years. The case was filed on Wednesday before the ICJ by former foreign minister Allan Wagner, representing Peru, four months after Lima officially announced it would make the move. "The historic international action taken Wednesday by Peru brings an end to a careful preparatory stage carried out step by step by my government" President Alan Garcia said in a rare appearance before Congress in Lima. Garcia said Peru was looking in this way to find "a fair and equitable solution" to the controversy. He added he was confident the suit would not be interpreted by Chile as an "unfriendly act". The controversy was revived last May, when the Peruvian government presented before the UN a claim to its maritime waters, which Chile considers its own. The decision to take the case to The Hague irks Chile as it alleges that the bilateral maritime boundary was set in treaties signed in the 1950s. Peru, however, says those agreements only covered fishing rights. The head of the Peruvian congress, Luis Gonzales Posada, said that the legislature "strongly" and "without hesitation" backs President Garcia administration's position