Bolivia says arrest of soldiers in Chile 'regrettable'

Bolivia on Saturday lamented the "regrettable incident" that led to the arrest of three of its soldiers across the border in Chile, denying they intended to violate Chilean territory.

The soldiers were arrested on Friday near the border complex of Colchane, in northern Chile. The soldiers were in a car with a gun, and witnesses reported hearing shots, Chile Interior Minister Andres Chadwick said.

Bolivia Communications Minister Amanda Davila said it was a "regrettable incident, but there was no malicious intent. There was no veiled purpose to make an incursion on territory -- nothing like that."

Speaking in Santiago, where she has accompanied President Evo Morales for a regional summit with European leaders, Davila said the soldiers wound up on the wrong side of the border by accident.

The soldiers were chasing smugglers along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border and strayed into Chile due to a "technological fault," she said, adding that Santiago hoped to resolve the matter "quickly and expeditiously."

Chile and Bolivia have not had diplomatic relations since 1978, when the two countries broke ties over a long-running dispute over sea access.

Bolivia has been landlocked in the Amazon and Andes Mountains region since 1884 after losing 128,000 square kilometers (50,000 square miles) of its territory to Chile during the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific.

The loss of the land -- which included 400 kilometers (250 miles) of coastline -- left Bolivia landlocked. It is now one of South America's poorest nations.