Girding for a Bloody Anniversary
Add another entry to the list of potential trouble spots around the world: the barren but mineral-rich Atacama Desert at the narrow border between Chile and Peru.
On one side of the frontier (see map), the Peruvians have been moving troops, Soviet-built T-55 tanks and American-made armored personnel carriers into burgeoning military bases in the southern border provinces. On the other side, the Chileans, bracing for a possible invasion, are mining the desert, implanting tank traps and building fortifications. While tensions across this sere, sparsely populated...