Bolivia and Paraguay officially demarcated their border after 88 years of negotiations

Bolivia and Paraguay completed and officially established the full course of their shared border on Wednesday in La Paz, after 88 years of negotiations and technical efforts. The two countries thus demarcated the last section that had remained unresolved, measuring 3.5 kilometers along the Rio Negro, which originates in Bolivia.

The agreement was announced by Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry at the end of a three-day meeting of the Joint Bolivian-Paraguayan Boundary Demarcation Commission. Specialists compared geographical data collected with the help of high-precision drones with the official documents of the two governments.

The border between Bolivia and Paraguay is approximately 755 kilometers long. The demarcation process began after the Chaco War, fought between 1932 and 1935 for control of the arid region of the northern Gran Chaco. The conflict resulted in between 80,000 and 100,000 deaths, while Bolivia lost significant territory to Paraguay.

In 1938, the two states signed a peace treaty that opened negotiations to define the border. La Paz said that completing the demarcation strengthens bilateral relations and brings a historic cycle to an end. Paraguay highlighted the difficulties of carrying out the work in vast and hard-to-access areas and said that the two countries would be the only ones in South America with completely demarcated borders.