Minefields and humanitarian demining at the Chile-Bolivia border : a step-by-step approach

Abstract

The border is a place of encounter for geopolitical and literary accounts as well as historiographical and anthropological ones, but also is, like the doors guarded by the god Janus, a location where the dichotomy between control and integration—the paradox of globalization— is apparent. All this may allow an informal measurement of relations between neighbors. This article will discuss the implementation, over 30 years, of border controls at the Chilean-Bolivian frontier through the deployment of one of the most aggressive policies seen in teichopolitics: mine-laying that resulted in a virtual wall between both countries. F inally, the reasons that led Chile in recent years to remove mines and reduce its control of the border will be analyzed