Reference :
V-P-HIST-03404-35
Date :
1933
Caption :
Chaco war 1932-1935. Pozo Azul. Wounded Bolivian prisoners of war waiting for their evacuation.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
Site CICR:
25-01-2005
The Chaco war (1932-1935)
A border conflict over a remote piece of territory resulted in the capture of thousands of prisoners of war. The ICRC sent delegates to visit them but its help was not needed for POW mail.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Bolivia and Paraguay began disputing possession of the Gran Chaco, a vast, hostile and desert region lying between them. Though neither country had settled more than the areas immediately adjoining their own frontiers, both claimed the whole of the territory.
Clashes at border posts were a regular occurrence. The Paraguayans and the Bolivians had built a double line of forts right across the Chaco. In June 1932, a Bolivian patrol captured a Paraguayan fort. This triggered a military escalation which culminated in full-scale conflict. The belligerents became bogged down in the ensuing war and it was not until 12 June 1935 that they accepted an armistice. The Buenos Aires Conference of 1936 settled the conflict, awarding Paraguay the greater part of the contested territory.
Original material :
negative
Resolution :
3500x2455
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
black and white
