Puna de Atacama dispute

[1] The dispute originated with the Chilean annexation of the Bolivian Litoral Department in 1879 during the War of the Pacific.

In the light that influential Bolivian politicians considered the Litoral Province to be lost forever, the adjacent Puna de Atacama appeared to be a remote, mountainous and arid place that was difficult to defend.

That led to the signature of two contradictory treaties in which Bolivia granted Argentina and Chile overlapping areas: On November 2, 1898, Argentina and Chile signed two documents in which they decided to convene a conference to define the border in Buenos Aires with delegates of both countries.

[2] If there was no agreement, a Chilean and Argentine delegate and the United States minister to Argentina, William Buchanan, would decide.

As foreseen, there was no accord at the conference, and Buchanan proceeded with the delegates of Chile, Enrique Mac Iver, and Argentina José Evaristo Uriburu, to define the border.