The Battle of Canchas Blancas took place on 12 November 1879 when the Bolivian army together with local indigenous people defeated Chilean forces. The battle had been largely overlooked / ignored by Bolivian historians until in 2017 the government published a recently discovered diary written by Colonel Ezequiel Apodaca describing it. Chile disputes that the battle even took place and says it never had 1500 soldiers in the region as claimed by Bolivia, though Chilean troops did sometimes hunt in the area to supply troops in Calama and nearby. The Bolivian goverment organised a re-enactment of the battle on 28 March 2018 as part of events to coincide with the hearings in the ICJ in The Hague for Bolivia's case demanding Chile negotiates access to the Pacific coast in good faith. This sign was likely erected at the same time; it had not been there before.