<P> Diplomatic relations with Bolivia continued to be strained because of Bolivia's continuing aspiration to the sea . In 1964, Bolivian President Víctor Paz Estenssoro severed diplomatic relations with Chile . Generals Augusto Pinochet and Hugo Banzer resumed diplomatic relations and attempted to settle territorial disputes . The secret negotiations started in 1973 and in 1975 diplomatic relations between Chile and Bolivia were established . That year, Pinochet and Banzer met in the Bolivian border town of Charaña . Pinochet agreed to give Bolivia a small strip of land running between the Chilean city of Arica and the Peruvian border . However the Treaty of Lima between Peru and Chile specified that Chile must consult Peru before granting any land to a third party in the area of Tarapacá . Peruvian President General Francisco Morales Bermúdez did not agree with the Chañara proposal and instead drafted his own proposal, in which the three nations would share administration of the port of Arica and the sea immediately in front of it . Pinochet refused this agreement, and Banzer broke ties with Chile again in 1978 . The failure of the Chañara accords was one of the reasons of Banzer's downfall that very year . </P> <P> In early 2002 the administration of President Jorge Quiroga proposed building the pipeline through neighboring Chile to the port of Mejillones, the most direct route to the Pacific Ocean to export the newly discovered gas reserves in Bolivia . However, antagonism towards Chile runs deep in Bolivia because of the loss of Bolivia's Pacific coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879--1884). </P> <P> Bolivians began campaigning against the Chilean option, arguing instead that the pipeline should be routed north through the Peruvian port of Ilo, 260 km further from the gas fields than Mejillones, or, better yet, first industrialised in Bolivia . According to Chilean estimates, the Mejillones option would be $600 million cheaper . Peru, however, claimed the difference in cost would be no more than $300 million . Bolivian proponents of the Peruvian option say it would also benefit the economy of the northern region of Bolivia through which the pipeline would pass . </P> <P> Supporters of the Chile pipeline argued that US financiers would be unlikely to develop processing facilities within Bolivia . Meanwhile, the Peruvian government, eager to promote territorial and economic integration, offered Bolivia a special economic zone for 99 years for exporting the gas at Ilo, the right of free passage, and the concession of a 10 km2 area, including a port, that would be exclusively under Bolivian administration . President Jorge Quiroga postponed the decision shortly before leaving office in July 2002 and left this highly contentious issue to his successor . It was thought Quiroga did not want to jeopardize his chances of re-election as president in the 2007 elections . </P>

When did bolivia lost access to the sea