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An Uneasy Balance: International Relief Efforts in the Chaco War

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Captivity in War during the Twentieth Century

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Abstract

War over the Chaco Boreal, a desolate region claimed by both Bolivia and Paraguay, caused disproportionately high loss of life and treasure for both sides. Neither state could afford to prosecute a war on its own, despite recent modernization programs that drew attention from outsiders. International interest included prewar calls for refugee resettlement via the League of Nations—but once fighting did break out, there was significant and increasing intervention and involvement by international relief organizations and diplomats. This chapter’s focus on the involvement of foreign actors in the Chaco War unveils important trends in the history of war-making in the twentieth century, which places this South American conflict closer to the World Wars that served as the conflict’s bookends.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See “Registro” in Museo Histórico Militar “Héroes de la Guerra del Chaco,” Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Also, see “Prisioneros Bolivianos Guerra de Chaco,” Ministerio de Defensa, Instituto de Historia y Museo Militar del Ministerio de Defensa Nacional [IHM], Asunción, Paraguay.

  2. 2.

    Augusto Céspedes, El Dictador Suicida: 40 Años de Historia de Bolivia (Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 1956), 134.

  3. 3.

    About 10,000 men are considered deserters; for more on this, see James Dunkerley, “The Politics of the Bolivian Army: Institutional Developments to 1935” (PhD diss., Nuffield College, Oxford 1979), 266.

  4. 4.

    See Matthew Hughes, “Logistics and the Chaco War: Bolivia versus Paraguay, 1932–35,” The Journal of Military History 69, no. 2 (2005): 411–437. Despite the Paraguayan forces being better prepared, the fighting was tough at all levels of society, which made its way into portrayals of the war in award-winning literature such as Augusto Roa Bastos, Hijo de hombre (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1960).

  5. 5.

    Overall, the economic influence of the 1920s was profound. See Emily S. Rosenberg, Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900–1930 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999). For the Bolivian case in particular, see Robert Niebuhr, “The Road to the Chaco War: Bolivia’s Modernisation in the 1920s,” War & Society 37, no. 2 (2018), 96–107.

  6. 6.

    For example, see Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Oppressed But Not Defeated: Peasant Struggles Among the Aymara and Qhechwa in Bolivia, 1900–1980 (Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1987).

  7. 7.

    See Bruno Cabanes, The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918–1924 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

  8. 8.

    Daniel S. Bustamante, Bolivia: Su Estructura y sus Derechos en el Pacifico (La Paz: Libreria Editora Arno Hermanos, 1920), 61.

  9. 9.

    For more, see Joe Wilson, The United States, Chile and Peru in the Tacna and Arica Plebiscite (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1979) and William E. Skuban, Lines in the Sand: Nationalism and Identity on the Peruvian-Chilean Frontier (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2007). Finally, a recent survey of the battle between Chile and Peru is explained in Robert Niebuhr, “Economic Conquest of the Pacific: Revisiting the Tacna-Arica Plebiscite,” Journal of World History 30, no. 4 (2019): 471–500.

  10. 10.

    See Speech of President Saavedra in Honor of General Pershing, December 31, 1924; also Reply of General Pershing, Letter, December 31, 1924, Library of Congress [LOC], Washington, D.C., John J. Pershing Papers, 1882–1971.

  11. 11.

    B. Saavedra, Speech, December 31, 1924. LOC, Pershing Papers.

  12. 12.

    See “No. 2734, Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, with Annex,” League of Nations Treaty Series, CXVIII: 1–4 (1931–1932), (Geneva: League of Nations, 1932), 344–411.

  13. 13.

    Federico More, Deberes de Chile, Peru, y Bolivia ante el problema del Pacifico (La Paz: Gonzalez y Medina, 1918), 109.

  14. 14.

    See, James Schofield Saeger, The Chaco Mission Frontier: The Guaycuruan Experience (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2000), 166.

  15. 15.

    Much of the older colonial history is mentioned in larger monographs on the topic; for example, José D. Mesa, Teresa Gisbert, and Carlos D. Mesa Gisbert, Historia de Bolivia (La Paz: Editorial Gisbert Y CIA S.A., 1997), 528–530. Additionally, other articles include, “The Frontier Dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay,” Bulletin of International News 5, no. 12 (1928): 8–10.

  16. 16.

    For a recent treatment of the war, see Bridget Chesterton, ed., The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism (Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016).

  17. 17.

    A good source on the role of the Catholic Church, including its humanitarian efforts, is found in Archivo del Arzobispado de la Santísima Asunción [AASA], Asunción, Paraguay, Guerra del Chaco 901.9, Tomo 1, 2 and 3.

  18. 18.

    For example, Jauregui Rosquellas, the Director General of Bolivian Propaganda wrote to Bolivian President Tejada Sorzano in August 1935, in which he presented a summary of plans for the future of propaganda. He said that the Bolivian propaganda efforts must generate a positive image of Bolivia abroad and focus on how foreign investment would thrive in the country. Mr. Rosquellas wanted to extend invitations to the “capitalist, industrialist, and simple tourist,” for the benefit of all. See Archivo Nacional de Bolivia [ANB], Sucre, Bolivia, 1935 Presidencia de la Republica–Correspondencia Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, PR 0118, Caja 62.

  19. 19.

    For more on the Bolivian experience of captivity, see Robert Niebuhr, “Prisoners of the Chaco: The Bolivian Experience of Captivity” War in History (2019), https://doi.org/10.1177/0968344519842358.

  20. 20.

    See Dispute Between Bolivia and Paraguay: Appeal of the Bolivian Government, The League of Nations Official Journal, Special Supplement No. 124, (Geneva: League of Nations, 1934).

  21. 21.

    On the identification and registration of the prisoners, including the issuance of a “cedula individual” or identification card, and the sanitation concerns along the approved routes, see Archivo de Ministerio de Relacciones Exteriories, Academia Diplomática y Consular “Dr. Carlos Antonio López” [AMRE], Asunción, Paraguay, “Identidad y registro de prisioneros,” “Comisión especial de repatriación,” DPD 182, April 1936.

  22. 22.

    See AMRE, “Identidad y registro de prisioneros,” Comisión especial de repatriación,” DPD 182.

  23. 23.

    See “Instrucciones para los miembros militares ante la comisión especial de repatriación,” AMRE DPD 182. Regarding officers who could pay their way through Puerto Casado, see memo, “Instrucciones para los delegados militaras ante la comisión especial de la conferencia de paz,” DPD 182, Juan Stefanich, March 8, 1936.

  24. 24.

    Few peace treaties allow for captives to choose where they would be repatriated. One contemporary exception dealt with German prisoners held in Japan during the First World War. For that story, see Charles Burdick, The German Prisoners-of-War in Japan, 1914–1920 (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1984).

  25. 25.

    The Miraflores neighborhood of La Paz grew in the decades prior to the Chaco War, thanks in part to the hospital facility built there. The American College of Surgeons worked with newly established Bolivian equivalent from 1921. For more, see F.H. Martin, South America from a Surgeon’s Point of View (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1922).

  26. 26.

    See Archive of International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC], Geneva, Switzerland, Fond CR 00/143 “Paraguay,” Folder 22–29, 28.12.1931, “Copia autentificada del acta No. 28, de la Cruz Roja Paraguaya, del 28 de Diciembre de 1931.”

  27. 27.

    ICRC Fond CR00/10, CR bolivienne, March 15 & 27, 1926, “L/de M. Balcazar annonçant et nommant sa déléguée permanente auprès du CICR Mme de Saavedra.” Other important Bolivian women had taken the opportunity to advance civil society in the immediate pre-war years in the name of progress; a complete list of names is found in ICRC CR00/10, CR bolivienne, May 12, & 25, 1925, “Circulaire de la CR bolivenne faissant part de la composition du Comité de sa société, élu le 22 mai 1925.”

  28. 28.

    ICRC CR182 III, Conflit du Chaco, 301, 8.9.1934, “M. Boisseier retourne le mémorandum (traduction) sur les principales organisations s’étant occupées des PG du Chaco.” In Cochabamba, women working for the Red Cross in July 1934 noted that they passed out 30,000 cigarettes, 8,000 sweaters, 4,000 packages of crackers, and thousands of papers and pens so the men could correspond with their families at home. See “La Cruz Roja de Cochabamba en el Chaco,” La Unión, July 5, 1934, 4.

  29. 29.

    For more on the contest over control, see Mesa, Historia de Bolivia, 528–530.

  30. 30.

    ANB, 1929 Correspondencia Ministerio de Guerra y Colonización, Telégrafo al Señor Ministro, April 27, 1929. Several of these schemes existed in the 1920s, including by U.S. politician William Murray. See K.L. Bryant, Jr., Alfalfa Bill Murray (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968). Regarding civilization in the Chaco, see “El Canillita,” Semana Grafica, May 19, 1934, 3. “El Indio forma las tres cuartas partes de la población de Bolivia. Educar al Indio no es—precisa y solamente—darle abecedario sino justicia y dignidad, sobre todo devolviéndole sus tierras.”

  31. 31.

    For more on the treatment of refugees after the First World War, see Mark Strecker, Americans in a Splintering Europe: Refugees, Missionaries and Journalists in World War I (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2019).

  32. 32.

    League of Nations Archival Collection [LON], Geneva, Switzerland, Fond C1454 “International Labour Office,” Rr. 412/8/47/1, “Letter to Mr. Johnson.” Documents like this show that companies solicited the Nansen Commission with requests for refugees who would transport people and guarantee the interest on the sale of land.

  33. 33.

    See LON, C1454, Rr. 412/15/2/1, “Summarized extracts from article in ‘Critica’ (Argentine) on the exploitation of workers in connection with the construction of branch railway from Avia-Terai Metan to Barranqueras,” 1929.

  34. 34.

    LON, C1454, Rr. 412/8/47/1, “Letter to Dr. Nansen,” 1927.

  35. 35.

    LON C1454, Rr. 412/7/9/1, “Memo to M. Labelle,” 1927. Childs toured parts of Brazil but ruled them out.

  36. 36.

    LON, C1454, Rr. 412/10/2/1, “Memo to Mr. Johnson,” December 12, 1926.

  37. 37.

    LON, C1454, Rr. 412/10/2/1, “Memo from Assistant to the Delegate for South America of Refugee Service,” January 19, 1927.

  38. 38.

    LON, C1454, Rr. 412/10/2/1, “Letter from Sociedad Anónima Ganadera y Colonizadora, La Union,” December 27, 1926.

  39. 39.

    LON Rr. 412/16/2/1, “Memo from Chief of Refugee Section,” January 17, 1930.

  40. 40.

    LON Rr. 412/7/47/1, “Letter to Mr. Childs,” November 8, 1927.

  41. 41.

    LON Rr. 412/7/47/1, “Letter to Mr. Johnson,” November 28, 1927.

  42. 42.

    In November 1932 the German Red Cross had demanded the ICRC get involved in the Chaco conflict as early as 1932 to “protect the Mennonite communities” in the Puerto Casado area, where Bolivian planes had recently bombed. See ICRC CR182 Conflit Bolivie-Paraguay, “Memo from 3 August 1932.”

  43. 43.

    See, for example, “Bolivia begins Paraguay War: Attack on Chaco Fort Told to La Paz Populace,” Los Angeles Times, July, 20, 1932, 7.

  44. 44.

    Bolivian General Hans Kundt was unwilling to seek complete mobilisation even in August 1933; instead, he actually disbanded some units to improve morale, which backfired, especially as the battle for Nanawa intensified and Bolivians suffered continued losses. See Dunkerley, “The Politics of the Bolivian Army: Institutional Developments to 1935,” 238.

  45. 45.

    David Zook, The Conduct of the Chaco War (New York: Bookman Associates, 1960), 148.

  46. 46.

    Records of prisoner rolls show Paraguayans as having been captured after the beginning of 1934. Therefore, while the Paraguayan government was faced with thousands of captives from the initial campaigns, the Bolivians never faced such demands of caring for prisoners. See AMRE, DPD 8, “Registro de Prisioneros.”

  47. 47.

    See Archivo de Cancillería, Buenos Aires, Argentina [AdC], Fond Ministerio de relaciones exteriors y culto [MREC], Conferencia de paz del Chaco, Caja 16 “Asesor Militar de la delegacion Argentina,” [Caja 16] “Anexo al acta privada no. 35 del 7.V.1937.” 2,562 were returned of liberated and 16 remained fugitives.

  48. 48.

    See ICRC CR182 Conflit Bolivie-Paraguay, “Copies of News Reports,” 1932.

  49. 49.

    See Eduardo Romecin, “Agricultural Adaptation in Bolivia,” Geographical Review 19, no. 2 (1929), 253.

  50. 50.

    The registry marked the respective locations, finalised in a memo with a map. See AMRE, DPD 8, specifically, “Memo No. 92–36, Major Manuel Inchauste, Ejercito de Bolivia,” May 20, 1936.

  51. 51.

    See AMRE, DPD 8. First, a handwritten note by the highest-ranking Paraguayan officer in the Sucre camp, Eliodoro Caballero, complaining about the conditions (January 23, 1936). Following that were copies of telegrams by Recalde and Santacruz to authorities in La Paz.

  52. 52.

    AMRE, DPD 8, specifically, “Memo No. 92–36, Major Manuel Inchauste, Ejercito de Bolivia,” May 20, 1936. Also see ICRC CR 182 “Conflit du Chaco,” No. 496, “Letter to ICRC in Geneva,” May 1, 1935. This recounted how uniforms sent to Bolivia by the Paraguayan Ministry of Defense were detained in Bolivian customs offices and thus prisoners had neither clothes nor shoes.

  53. 53.

    AASA, Guerra del Chaco, 901.9, Tomo 1, Memo from, May 22, 1935.

  54. 54.

    For more details, see Niebuhr, “Prisoners of the Chaco: The Bolivian Experience of Captivity.”

  55. 55.

    ICRC CR 182 “Conflit du Chaco,” Lucien Cramer, “Mission au Paraguay et en Bolivie,” 6–7.

  56. 56.

    ICRC CR 182 “Conflit du Chaco,” “Memo from Emmanuel A. Galland,” 28 May 1935.

  57. 57.

    ICRC CR 182 “Conflit du Chaco,” No. 424, “La question des Prisionniers de Guerre paraguayens du Chapare,” February 3, 1936.

  58. 58.

    See IHM, Memo, May 16, 1933. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. No. 92/933. The same day another memo, No. 93/933, arrived asking for 200 uniforms for the Bolivians to meet the requirements of the Hague Treaty.

  59. 59.

    ICRC CR 182, “Conflit du Chaco,” No. 588, “Memo from Dr. Juan Manuel Balcazar,” September 26, 1935.

  60. 60.

    ICRC CR 182, “Conflit du Chaco,” No. 422, “Memorandum,” February 1, 1935.

  61. 61.

    ICRC CR 182, “Conflit du Chaco,” No. 600, No. 81 “Letter from M. de Chambrier,” October 23, 1935. Balcazar was a noted Bolivian doctor who wrote widely on healthcare issues in his country, especially considering its continued path of development. See Juan Manuel Balcazar, Historia de la Medicina en Bolivia (La Paz: Ediciones “Juventud,” 1956).

  62. 62.

    See “Dispute Between Bolivia and Paraguay: Communication from the Paraguayan Representative,” March 6, 1934, C.120.1934.VIII, United Nations Archives, Geneva, accessed September 12, 2019, https://biblio-archive.unog.ch/Dateien/CouncilDocs/C-120-1934-VII_EN.pdf.

  63. 63.

    See “Charge Cruelty in Chaco,” New York Times, February 4, 1934, 18.

  64. 64.

    See ANB, Sucre, Bolivia, PR 0118, “Correspondencia Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores,” February 14, 1935.

  65. 65.

    See ICRC, CR182-5, “Conflit du Chaco,” 452, 5.3.1935, “A.r. a l/de M. Swift (445). Avons fait le necessaire aures de la CR paraguayenne.” The outcome of the case is not clear from documents in various archives. Presumably, the Rojas family were liberated in one of the prisoner exchanges that occurred prior to the formal repatriation.

  66. 66.

    AMRE, DPD 182, Decreto Ley No. 1949, Presidencia de la Republica, June 11, 1936.

  67. 67.

    AMRE DCCP Paz de Chaco 22, “Sesión del día 12 de junio de 1936,” Conferencia de Paz, Act N. 58.

  68. 68.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 19.C83 A91 [No. 19], “La Conferencia de Paz,” 7 (“Responsabilidades”).

  69. 69.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 19, “Interpretación del protocolo de paz,” October 14, 1935, 1–2. The interpretation of the peace protocol stirred discussion regarding various historical examples and how international law, “Derecho Internacional Público,” was to guide them as a committee moving forward.

  70. 70.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 19, “Secreto: Comisión Militar Neutral, Actas,” Acta No. 25, 59.

  71. 71.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 47. C83 A94, “Acta Protocolizada, 21 January 1936.” Both belligerents agreed “de acuerdo con las autoridades de los respectivos países.” Furthermore, regarding transfer through Corumba, Carlos Calvo from Bolivia argued that only “40 or 50” of the Paraguayan prisoners could take the route through Corumba in Brazil. See AMRE Paz de Chaco DCCP 21, Acta No. 49, Executive Commission, April 24, 1936.

  72. 72.

    AMRE DCCP Paz de Chaco 21, Acta N 31, February 12, 1936.

  73. 73.

    AMRE DCCP Paz del Chaco 21, “Sesión del día 3 de febrero de 1936,” Conferencia de Paz Acta N. 28.

  74. 74.

    AMRE DCCP 5 Pa z de Chaco, “Memorándum sobre la cuestión canje y repatriación de prisioneros,” The memo talked about the historical trajectory of the terms use and custom and brought up a number of examples on which basis to decide how to handle the prisoners of the Chaco.

  75. 75.

    Some soldiers acknowledged this, as some prisoners married and started families in Paraguay, which made it “impossible to return to Bolivia.” See Rene Danilo Arze Aguirre, Guerra y Conflictos Sociales: El Caso Rural Boliviano durante la Campaña del Chaco (La Paz: Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Económica y Social, 1987), 260. Also, Roberto Choque Canqui, Historia de una lucha desigual: Los contenidos ideológicos y políticos de las rebeliones indígenas de la Pre-Revolución Nacional (La Paz: Unidad de Investigaciones Históricas, 2005), 100. “Many of the soldiers did not want to return to their homes; some went to live instead in the cities; meanwhile, other stayed in Paraguay or left for Argentina, where they could find work and suffer less than in Bolivia.”

  76. 76.

    Ricardo Valle Closa used the alias of Gastón del Mar and conducted clandestine work during the Chaco War for the Communist Party; he also wrote articles for various Paraguayan papers during his time in captivity. See Gastón del Mar, “Liberalismo o Saavedrismo,” El Orden, March 3, 1934, 3. His articles appeared regularly in El Orden, at least in first part of 1934, with an almost daily topic under the theme of “A la sombra de la guerra: De La Paz a Campo Vía, Diario de Guerra del Prisionera Gastón del Mar.”

  77. 77.

    AMRE DPD 182, “Instrucciones para los miembros militares ante la comisión especial de repatriación.”

  78. 78.

    AMRE DCCP Paz de Chaco 21, “Sesión del dia 3 de febrero de 1936,” Acta N. 28.

  79. 79.

    AMRE DCCP Paz de Chaco 21, “Sesión del dia 3 de febrero de 1936,” Acta N. 28.

  80. 80.

    AdC MREC CPdC, No. C183 A94 [No. 50], “Entrega y Recepción de Prisioneros,” April 29, 1936. This lengthy document includes resolutions, templates of forms, and official decisions of the executive commission on repatriation.

  81. 81.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 19, “Secreto: Comisión Militar Neutral, Actas,” Acta No. 19, June 22, 1935, 41–44.

  82. 82.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 19, “Proyecto de resolución de la conferencia de paz en cumplimiento del articulo VII capitulo I del protocolo de paz del 12 de Junio de 1935,” 3.

  83. 83.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 50, “Informe de la comisión especial de repatriación,” Chapter 4, “Verificación de los compromisos relativos a la liberación reciproca de los prisioneros de guerra,” esp. pp. 50–53.

  84. 84.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 50, “Sesión Plenaria del 17 de Julio de 1936,” Acta No. 10.

  85. 85.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 50, “Sesión Privada del 29 de Julio de 1936,” Acta No. 24.

  86. 86.

    AdC MREC, CPdC, No. 50, “Sesión Privada del 28 de Julio de 1936,” Acta No. 23.

  87. 87.

    Ibid. This session includes a lot of logistical information regarding the repatriation process, including a single prisoner who was unable to be repatriated because he was jailed on criminal grounds.

  88. 88.

    AMRE Paz de Chaco DCCP 22, Acta N. 58, June 12, 1936.

  89. 89.

    For example, see Oscar Moscoso, Recuerdos de la Guerra del Chaco (Cochabamba: Canales, 1939); Emilio Sarmiento, Memorias de un soldado de la Guerra del Chaco (Caracas: El Cid Editor, 1978) and Fernando Silva, “Mis Memorias,” Regimiento de Caballería No. 1 (Asunción, Paraguay: Criterio Ediciones, 1989).

  90. 90.

    A recent study of the First World War argues that “the impact of the war was so tremendous that it changed whole societies, of participating as well as non-participating nation states alike.” See War and the Humanities: The Cultural Impact of the First World War, Frank Jacob, Jeffrey M. Shaw, and Timothy Demy, eds. (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2019), 5.

  91. 91.

    See, for example, Alejandro de Quesada, The Chaco War 1932–1935: South America’s Greatest War (Oxford: Osprey, 2011).

  92. 92.

    See “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” United Nations, accessed September 12, 2019, https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html. This progressed even further to the Helsinki Accords, including ideas related to the freedom of movement. For example, regarding migrant labour, the signatories were “to ensure, through collaboration between the host country and the country of origin, the conditions under which the orderly movement of workers might take place.” Additionally, more broadly “Make it their aim to facilitate freer movement and contacts, individually and collectively, whether privately or officially, among persons, institutions and organizations of the participating States.” See “Conference on Security and Co-Operation in Europe Final Act,” Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, Helsinki, Finland, 1975, accessed September 12, 2019, https://www.osce.org/helsinki-final-act?download=true.

  93. 93.

    See League of Nations Treaty Series, 383–390.

  94. 94.

    For more on how the Chaco War fit within global norms see Robert Niebuhr, ¡Vamos a avanzar!: The Chaco War and Bolivia’s Political Development, 1899–1952 (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2021).

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  1. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Robert Niebuhr

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    Marcel Berni

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    Tamara Cubito

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Niebuhr, R. (2021). An Uneasy Balance: International Relief Efforts in the Chaco War. In: Berni, M., Cubito, T. (eds) Captivity in War during the Twentieth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65095-7_4

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