Humanitarian work during the Chaco War

18 June 2015

The photo exhibition "80 años de acción humanitaria de la Cruz Roja" (80 years of Red Cross humanitarian action) features images of the ICRC's earliest work in Latin America, during the Chaco War (1932-1935). The photos show the everyday activities of Paraguayan and Bolivian prisoners of war, the wounded being attended to on the battlefield and the work of Paraguayan Red Cross volunteers.

Over the course of the war, ICRC delegates visited around 18,000 Bolivian prisoners in Paraguay and 2,500 Paraguayan prisoners in Bolivia. The Paraguayan Red Cross joined Paraguay's medical corps and mobilized physicians from all areas of medicine to care for the wounded and sick from the battlefield. A number of field hospitals were also set up to provide emergency treatment.