Arica y Parinacota

Arica y Parinacota exists because Bolivia needs the sea. Chile's northernmost region borders Peru and Bolivia, serving as a free port for landlocked Bolivia and terminus of the Oruro-Arica oil pipeline—a geographic arrangement that traces to the 1879 War of the Pacific, when Chile seized this coastal strip from Peru and Bolivia. The region's 16,873 km² and 259,802 residents (2024) occupy an ecotone between Andean highlands and Pacific coast, with the Azapa and Lluta valleys converging at Arica to produce export citrus and olives. Indigenous Aymara comprise 80% of the 36.2% indigenous population (approximately 87,816 people), making this one of Chile's most ethnically distinctive regions. Governor Diego Paco Mamani, elected October 2024 with 54.5% of votes, became the first Aymara engineer to lead the region, prioritizing economic diversification and cultural preservation. The November 2024 Chile-Peru Border Integration Committee meeting focused on infrastructure and migration—the ongoing work of managing flows across boundaries that exist because of 19th-century warfare. Arica functions as a membrane organism: selectively permeable, extracting value from cross-border trade while maintaining the national distinction that war created 145 years ago. By 2026, Bolivia's eternal pursuit of sea access and the Aymara cultural revival under indigenous leadership will shape a region that exists primarily to serve the needs of others.