’20,000 Uniforms Given Bolivia by Standard Oil’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 10 No. 136. June 7, 1933.

American Imperialism Backs Struggle for Chaco Oil

The war in the Gran Chaco area between Bolivia and Paraguay for possession of the rich oil fields there has, from the very start, been a struggle between American and British imperialism, between Standard Oil and the Royal Dutch Shell. And in this struggle both puppet nations, Bolivia and Paraguay, are being supplied with all the material of war by their powerful backers.

The photos which the Daily Worker prints alongside are conclusive proof of American imperialist aid to its Bolivian puppet. The Bolivian army uniforms shown in the top photo, showing an exhibit of Chaco war trophies in the windows of the big “Bazar Colon” department store in Montevideo, Uruguay, are United States Army uniforms, and the U.S. insignia can be clearly seen on the uniform buttons shown in the close-up photos alongside.

The two uniforms shown in the window were worn by Rodriguez Riva, Bolivian army officer, taken prisoner at Fort Saavedra, and to Sergeant Enrique Boza of the Bolivian Medical Corps, taken prisoner by the Paraguayans at Fort Toledo. These two towns are at opposite ends of the battle-front, and the fact that both uniforms are of American make and show U.S. army buttons, proves that the use of the U.S. uniform is widespread in the Bolivian Army. It also indicates who is supplying Bolivia with all its war material.

Below the photos, we print a photostat of the affidavit by Sgt. Boza, declaring that his uniform is one of 20,000 given Bolivia by the Standard Oil Company. The translation of the affidavit (written in Spanish) reads:

I, Sergeant in the Medical Corps of the Bolivian Army, declare herewith that I have given Lieut. Dr. Enrique Rogberg Balparda my blouse, that was given me in the city of Oruro the day of my departure; that 20,000 of these uniforms, they told us, were given to Bolivia by the Standard Oil. This blouse has buttons with the insignia of the United States of America. This is all I have to say under oath to tell the truth.

Isla-Poy, March 1933.

(Signed)

ENRIQUE BOZA.

More than 60,000 Bolivian and Paraguayan soldiers have been killed or wounded in the year-old Chaco war. More thousands are falling in battle now for the greater profits of Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell. What a contrast between these incontrovertible facts of American imperialist aggression in South America and Roosevelt’s bland appeal to the nations of the world for peace!

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n136-NY-jun-07-1933-DW-LOC.pdf