Chile’s foreign relations are experiencing an extraordinary moment of criticism after the latest events on the agenda, from what happened to the Israeli ambassador in 2022 and more recent events such as President Boric’s statement on the political situation in Peru and Foreign Ministry audio leaks in which they referred to the Argentine ambassador.

In the new edition of Tomás Mosciatti’s Interview, we talk about Chilean diplomacy together with academician from the Autonomous University, Dr. Jorge G. Guzman.

Chile diplomacy today

“We observed something different, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a tradition of work protected by law, in high secrecy and in a language that has been its hallmark for more than a century. There is wear and tear in the way politics understands the foreign ministry and how it understands its role. This crisis is now exploding and the ultimate victim is Mrs. Urrejola,” he said.

And he added: “Being a career diplomatic official for 20 years is self-critical criticism. What I’ve observed is a lot of officials are serving themselves more than the country and that’s serious. Major changes are needed within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Countries need to have a good chancellor because the international scenario is getting more complex and dangerous.”

He also referred to a controversial audio leak from a reserved meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “People are surprised by the language and form, but what worries me the most is what these conversations reveal in terms of clarity of analysis, one sees that there is no perspective and that everything is a conjuncture.”

“I think the participating service officials should reflect and realize the mistakes they made and people will ask them to step aside because the truth is bad for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chilean diplomacy. It is an observation at the country level where mistakes persist and nothing happens,” he finished.

The role of government and its changes

“The president has the opportunity to give a signal to the state that foreign policy belongs to the state. I believe that the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to be renovated and the Government is wrong not to and missed the opportunity to try to do things better,” he said.

In addition, he added: “It is clear that depending on the political signature of the ruling government, one trend is favored and another trend is favored to a lesser extent. The diplomatic service serves Chile, not for political thought or ideology, it is it that has been affected in such a way that some benefit and others are disadvantaged.”

“There are groups of friends who work together, group together and, depending on the Government, occupy administrative positions. Professional merit has taken a toll and in the end what happened is what people feel right now in diplomacy. The conclusion is that we need to do something with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, improve it and deal with issues related to the permanent interests of the country, ”he stressed.

Bilateral relations in Latin America

“The 1881 treaty that neutralizes the strait is violated, it cannot be rendered useless to the advantage of one party and to the detriment of the other in a dispute, in this case Argentina with England.”

Meanwhile, regarding the Campo Hielo Sur situation, he gave an example: “The 1998 agreement was a blunder and was contrary to the interests of the state, it must be criticized. What needs to be done is not to limit but simply to draw a line, whereby Chile has very little chance of retaining the advantageous position it had before signing the agreement which is presented as one of the great foreign policy achievements and is a boomerang”.

Below, review the full interview with Tomás Mosciatti on Bio Bio TV.