In 1975, for example, Chile's dictator Augusto Pinochet, fearing war with Argentina and Peru, offered Bolivia a corridor in territory that had belonged to Peru.
Bolivia is to become the first country in Latin America in which judges are to be ratified by popular election, with an initial ballot due in December.Whether that will produce a more independent and effective judiciary remains to be seen.
The impact of this year's El Niño has so far been less severe, but bad enough.Since December flooding has claimed 201 lives in Brazil, 43 in Mexico and 15 in Bolivia, whereas drought has contributed to electricity shortages in Venezuela and Ecuador.
Instead, Chile "brought itself into a new kind of international obligation" by repeatedly offering Bolivia some sort of access to the sea after the treaty came into force, argues Mr Rodríguez.
Some suggest it could offer Bolivia a lease on an enclave over which it would retain sovereignty, similar to China's former arrangement with Britain over part of Hong Kong.
In a referendum the following year, voters said Bolivia should use gas as a negotiating tool to gain access to the Pacific.With the suit at the ICJ, Bolivia is trying a new tack.
He notes this is just one of several planned laws aimed at facilitating oil and gas operations - "There are others on the way" - and disputes that it is intended to "develop" parts of Bolivia.
The Madidi National Park in north-west Bolivia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet.
Some 77 countries still restrict the type of work women can undertake, with bans on night-time work – as was the case until recently in Bolivia – or construction jobs.
After Allende's enemies finally claimed their victory against him on 11 September, Chileans protected themselves as best they could while Pinochet and his cohorts, well favoured now by Washington, turned to making themselves fortunes from the privatisation of public services and, quietly, from the trade in cocaine from Bolivia which the US never seemed to want to criticise or attack.
From southern Peru, through Bolivia, and into northern Argentina, my route alternated between the luxuriant jungles on the Andes' eastern slopes, and deserts on the west.
