Chile's arrest of Bolivian troops sparks UN complaint

Bolivia filed a complaint against Chile before the United Nations on Tuesday accusing the government in Santiago of breaking three international treaties, after three Bolivian soldiers were arrested on smuggling charges.

The January 25 arrests have set off more diplomatic tensions between the governments of President Evo Morales and President Sebastián Piñera, who are both at odds with each other over Bolivia's long-standing demands for direct access to the Pacific Ocean through Chile's territory.

Bolivia maintains that the soldiers, aged between 18 and 20, were actually chasing smugglers across the border but were arrested by Chilean forces, who said the Bolivians were armed with FAL assault weapons.

Bolivia's interim Foreign Minister Juan Ramón Quintana demanded that Santiago resolve the matter diplomatically and announced that it would file charges in absentia against the Chilean soldiers who detained them.

Thousands of Bolivian protestors have converged in front of the Chilean Embassy in La Paz. Chile has demanded that Bolivian authorities grant them more security.

"At no time should Bolivian officers have to stand trial, because in the end what Chile wants to do is to put Bolivia on trial, which is a violation of the principles of par in parem non habet imperium [an equal has no power over an equal]," said the complaint filed by Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, Sacha Llorenti.