Expulsion of Chileans from Bolivia and Peru in 1879

They were expelled on poorly built rafts and pontoons at Peruvian ports, or forced to wander through the desert to reach the northernmost positions occupied by the Chilean Army in Antofagasta.

"[4] Vallejos also stated that, "due to their growing population, their violent conduct, and their exacerbated national identity, Chilean migrants became an unsolved issue for the maintenance of peace, public order and security in Tarapaca as well as Antofagasta."

[5] Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna wrote about a Chilean organization known as La Patria whose sole objective was to separate the Antofagasta region from Bolivia.

[8] When Chilean forces occupied the region of Antofagasta in February 1879, the Bolivian garrisons marched to Cobija and Calama, and the deposed authorities embarked on the ship Amazonas bound for the North.

Due to disruption of guano and saltpeter trade, as well as the naval blockade, people from towns that were only connected to Central Peru by sea (Iquique, Huanillos, Pabellon de Pica, Pisagua) began to leave the region.

[14]: 168 The consulate of Peru in La Paz was informed in July 1880 that 600 Peruvians that had escaped the Chilean conquest of Tacna and Arica were living as refugees in the capital of Bolivia.

The company refused to pay the tax, and in February 1879 the Bolivian Government cancelled their mining licenses, nationalized the CSFA and announced its auction.

Peru, allied with Bolivia due to a secret treaty of alliance signed in 1873, had tried to build a saltpeter monopoly and was set to benefit greatly from the breakup of the CSFA, its main competitor.

[2]: 701–702 [dead link‍] In Peru, a humanitarian crisis unfolded, as thousands of men, women and children tried to reach the coast and get a ticket in one of the ships bound for Chile in order to return home.

On 5 April 1879, hundreds of refugees from Lima embarked on the Rimac and began to threaten General Juan Buendia, Chief of the Peruvian Army of Iquique.

[16] In Pabellon de Pica, one of the guano extraction fields in Tarapaca, a Chilean Navy raid against the port on 15 April 1879 found 350 refugees on a pontoon, property of a British citizen who had allowed them to stay there because they were unable to walk to Tocopilla.

[18] Others became forced laborers in the coal mines of Junin, and at the end of 1879 and early 1880, there were still reports of persecution and suffering endured by those who were unable to leave Peru; on 19 November 1879, Spencer St John, British Plenipotentiary Minister in Peru, supported the claims of Henry Pender, a British subject who was beaten and robbed by the soldiers in Callao during riots against Chilean women married to foreign citizens.

Regarding the looting and burning of Mollendo, Gonzalo Bulnes wrote:[22] The Peruvian Navy dismissed Chileans who were serving in the warships before the eviction decree.

Tribunales arbitrales (courts of arbitration) were established between Chile and Peru in order to determine the amount of reparations that was needed to be paid for the confiscated property.