Into the Green Hell: The Chaco War, 1932-1935

South America’s bloodiest armed conflict of the 20th century was also the continent’s first ‘modern’ war. Known as ‘The War of Thirst’ (la guerra de la sed), it was fought in 1932-1935 between the landlocked countries of Bolivia and Paraguay over the disputed region of the Chaco Boreal – a vast lowland wilderness that at some 100,000 square miles is larger than the whole of the UK. This Grande Verde – or ‘Green Hell’, as it was sometimes called – covers two-thirds of Paraguay west of the mighty Paraguay River, which flows north–south, and north of its almost equally mighty western tributary, the Pilcomayo River, but is home to just 2% of the country’s population.