Peru-Chile Territorial Conflict: Fight Over Massive Patch of Sand & Rock Hinders Talks Over Maritime Border Resolution

Chile and Peru's maritime border resolution is on the verge of falling apart once again over a patch of arid sand and rock the size of six soccer fields.

On Saturday, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala signed a law forming a municipality on its southern border that includes a coastal area measuring 3.7 hectares (9.1 acres) claimed by Chile, Bloomberg reported. Chile's Foreign Ministry said that the territory, which is triangle-shaped, is incontestably Chilean and has canceled a meeting with Peruvian ministers scheduled in December.

"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 quoted by the news outlet. "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."

According to Bloomberg, the recent events is a sensitive topic for Chile, given that the country lost power over an area of sea the size of Costa Rica to Peru in 2014. The ruling was made by the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

That same court has recently ordered that it will consider Bolivian arguments for Chile to begin negotiations over its demand for access to the sea, which Chile lost in the Pacific War of 1879, the news outlet added. Losing another ruling is not an option for Chile.

The two countries' maritime boundaries provided Peru rights over an additional 50,000 square kilometers (19,300 square miles) of sea. However, Chile and Peru argue over where the land boundary begins; Peru was adamant that it runs from the edge of the sea while Chile insisted that the starting point is some 270 meters inland, Yahoo! News reported.

Tensions erupted in October when the Congress voted to create the new district and rapidly ordered Chile's capital, Santiago, to recall its ambassador for consultations that has set up a bout of diplomatic notes, Yahoo! News noted.

The recent international relations between the two nations may boost the popularity of both countries' leaders, which got low records in recent months, Bloomberg reported. Humala had 18 percent appreciation in a Datum Internacional poll published on Monday. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet had 29 percent of favorable opinions in a survey by Adimark GfK issued on Nov. 4.

The border dispute between Chile and Peru came from a war that ended in 1884, with the former taking hold of desert territories that made it the world's largest copper producer, Bloomberg further reported.