Via the AFP: Bolivia, Paraguay End Border Dispute With Accord

Bolivian President Evo Morales and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo signed a historic accord here Monday, ending a boundary dispute that led to a catastrophic war in the last century.

In a solemn ceremony chaired by Argentine leader Cristina Kirchner, both presidents agreed that the dispute over the Chaco region – where a war between 1932 and 1935 left more than 100,000 people dead – was brought on by foreign interests.

The main focus of the several English-language accounts that I could find, and seem to have mostly been written from the same wire story, was that the two presidents agreed that the conflict was brought on by outside oil interests. The stories note (and in some cases just infer), but do not detail, that a definitive border was agreed upon.

In Bolivia’s La Prensa (Bolivia y Paraguay fijan límites tras 74 años de Guerra del Chaco), there is some discussion of the actual details (yet, sadly, no map. How can there be a story about borders and be no map?). On balance it would appear that this confirms borders agreed to in the 1938 peace treaty. The La Prensa piece also emphasizes that issue of blame. One presumes from all of this (and my knowledge of the Chaco War and its aftermath is rather limited) that the issue of blame has been a political sore spot.