Chile denies offering Bolivia sea access

The Chilian government Friday denied having agreed to offer the landlocked neighboring country of Bolivia a route to the sea through its territory, as Bolivia's leader has often claimed.

According to Bolivian President Evo Morales, his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet made the offer during her first term as president in 2006-2010.

"Never, not during President Bachelet's first administration, nor during the second, has Chile proposed an independent route to the sea for Bolivia. That has never happened, and we want to be very clear about that," government spokesman Alvaro Elizalde told reporters.

Bolivia on Friday indicated that behind-the-scenes maneuver was taking place to grant it access to the Pacific Ocean, centuries after it lost hundreds of kilometers of coastline to Chile in the late 1800s during the War of the Pacific. Chile claims the dispute was settled in a 1904 border treaty signed by the two countries.

During Bachelet's first term, the two heads of state did agree to hold talks on 13 issues, including the issue of sea access. However, Bachelet's successor, the conservative Sebastian Pinera (2010-2014), refused to dialogue with Bolivia on the issue.

Seeing the door was shut on talks, Bolivia took the case to the Hague-based International Court of Justice in 2013. Endi