- guardian.co.uk,
- Friday July 12, 1935
The war, which has claimed 35,000 victims, has been fought over the ownership of the Chaco Boreal, a wasteland of some 100,000 square miles west of the Paraguay river, the subject of a dispute between Paraguay and Bolivia since 1825.
Bolivia, deprived of its coastal territories since the war of the Pacific, wanted to use the Chaco as a shipping route for its oil exports. It also hoped to exploit the oil reserves of the Chaco itself.
Bolivian troops invaded in 1928, but a Pan-American conference averted outright war. Skirmishes continued until 1932 when Paraguay launched a major offensive, and formally declared war in May 1933. The Bolivian army, larger and better trained, fought back successfully, but in 1934 the Paraguayan offensive reversed the position, capturing much Bolivian land.
This tit-for-tat sequence came to an end today when the two sides, wearied by war, accepted the ceasefire.
