UN General Assembly
2012

injustices rectified through the resolve and goodwill of the relevant authorities. Chile cannot disregard Bolivia’s rights or the pronouncements of an entire continent, much less prolong indefinitely our forcibly imposed landlocked status. An unjust, imposed and non-implemented treaty cannot be allowed to continue to harm a people that is only calling for justice and for an end to its country’s status as a landlocked country. The intangibility of treaties means that they are not dogma. Treaties, like all other creations of human beings, can be changed. I say that because when we state that Chile must return our sea corridor, we are asked, what treaty? I therefore wish to take this opportunity to speak of a treaty signed in 1903 between the United States and Panama on the Panama Canal. In 1903, a treaty on the Panama Canal was signed under which the United States was authorized to build the Panama Canal and received sovereignty, in perpetuity, over the territories on both sides of the Canal and the area of the Canal. In other words, according to the