New Fleet ! The Bolivian Navy

The Bolivian Navy (Armada Boliviana) emerged not at first from the independence in 1825, but rather from the 1866 Boundary Treaty signed between Chile and Bolivia to ensure a sea access to the country. Bolivia created a small fleet to take part in the War of the Pacific (1879–1883) but was defeated by Chile alongside Peru, so the Bolivian coastline was retaken. However recovering this became a matter of honor and it had ramifications up to the present day’s Bolivian politics and trade.
This is a “brown water navy” meaning only lake-based and riverine one. Thus, no large assets but many small patrol crafts.

This largely mountainous country still maintains a navy on the Lake Titicaca plus its 5,000 miles of navigable rivers. There is no shortage of patrols to intercept smugglers, or supplying remote rural areas as a public service, rescuing people and livestock as floods happens, and its personal today trains with the Argentine Navy, which included deployment under UN in Haiti.
It is very much the equivalent situation to Switzerland, albeit the latter never cultivated a “navy” per se (although having a substantial trade fleet), but a riverine/Lemanic police force.
The Bolivians always however had the dream of returning to their sea access, and a navy it is.


Author: dreadnaughtz

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