[LINK] "Chile-Peru Squabble Over Six Football Pitches of Sand and Rock"

[rfmcdonald]

The 19th century War of the Pacific continues to overshadow Chile's relations with Peru, as it does more visibly Chile's relations with Bolivia. Bloomberg's John Quigley describes how bitterness over lost territory persists.

Andean neighbors Chile and Peru are at it again. After resolving a decades-old dispute over their maritime border last year, talks to deepen integration have broken down over a patch of arid sand and rock the size of six soccer fields -- and that is when the tide is out.

Peru’s President Ollanta Humala on Saturday signed a law creating a municipality on its southern border that includes an coastal area measuring 3.7 hectares (9.1 acres) claimed by Chile. Chile’s Foreign Ministry said the triangle-shaped territory is “unquestionably Chilean” and canceled a meeting with Peruvian ministers scheduled for next month.

It is a sensitive issue for Chile. The country lost sovereignty over an area of sea the size of Costa Rica to Peru last year in a ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Hague. That same court has just ruled that it will listen to Bolivian arguments for Chile to start negotiations over its demand for access to the sea, lost to Chile in the Pacific War of 1879. Chile doesn’t want to lose another ruling.

“What seem to be extremely minor issues play into really deep historical and
nationalist sentiment in both countries,” said Greg Weeks, a professor of
political science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in a phone
interview. “Until the boundaries are agreed upon by both sides, down to the inch, you’ll just have disputes that keep popping up over and over again.”