The 1879 – 1903 war betwen Chile and Peru-Bolivia is called “Guerra del Pacifico” (War of the Pacific) not pisco war.

If your intent is to name “all-out” confrontations in South America in modern history then there is a way longer list. Bolivia alone faced four such wars after independence (1825), don’t forget the Malvinas/Falklands war, or even the Ecuatorian – Peruvian conlfict.

Jonathan

This thread seems dead, but if there’s still interest: check out the official site of the Bolivian navy: http://www.armada.mil.bo or the unofficial site at
http://fab-extraoficial.webcindario.com (contains info on all branches of the armed forces not just the navy).

Other than that lets point out:

1.- the reason for the existence of a Bolivian navy is quite different to what you would expect as reasoning behind say, the Paraguayan navy. For starters, Bolivia DID have a sea-coast, patrolling and defending it were a few warships. This changed in 1879 qhen the Chileans invaded Peru and Bolivia, we lost, and lost… and lost the seacoast. The Navy still exists, part as a cultural thing and keeping the hope of returning to the sea alive and sencond for ractical reasons.

2.- Which are…. more than 60 percent of the Bolivian territoy is amazonic, check out a hydrographic map and you’ll see thre vast river systems within the country, lots of places that live off riverine activities (gold prospecting for instance) and not many roads to connect them to the main urban centers. Enter the navy and the air force, they provide contact to these areas and serve a purpouse that way.

3.- Drug interdiction.. the Marines are indeed a task force (called Blue Devils) specializing in riverine warfare and related special ops.

4.- Lake Titicaca, sure, that’s the first thing most folks think when refering to the navy, why not. The largest lake in S.Am., shared by two nations, highest navigation-able lake in the world. It serves a purpose there too, plus we have the diving school there, doing some good work in altitude diving research, and aiding your ocasional archeological expedition.

5.- The fleet: some 60 to 80 decent-sized ships and boats (from a 6 meter Piranha fast attack boat to a 32 meter hospital ship). some special purspouse stuff include a number of transports serving the Paraguay-Parana system. At one time (up till the 80s) the navy had also three trans-oceanic transport vessels stationed in the Rosario port in Argentina. There’s also a few aircraft in service.

All right for now, if there’s some good responses I’ll post some pictures.

later

Jonathan