Bolivia

República de Bolivia; Republic of Bolivia

Last modified: 2006-03-18 by antonio martins
Keywords: bolivia | state flag | variation | fertility | bravery | wealth | president | flag | coat of arms: mountain | disc (blue) |
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• About the flag
• State flag
• Presidential flag
• Coat of Arms

• History of the Bolivian Flag
• Bolivian departments (with clickable map)
• Bolivian military flags
  • Bolivian naval ensign
• Bolivian political flags
• American native peoples’ flags

• Bolivian parlament website, with the national coat of arms.
  reported by Dov Gutterman, 05 Nov 1998
• Jaume Ollé’s page about Bolivian flags

About the flag

According to the construction sheet in the official document, the proportions of the Bolivian flag are 7.5:11 i.e. 15:22.
Santiago Dotor, 02 Aug 2004

That’s almost identical to 2:3.
Johnny Andersson, 30 Jul 2004

The Album 2000 [pay00] says:

1. National flag. 2:3

Flag adopted in 1851.10.31, and confirmed in 1888.07.14.
Jaume Ollé, 01 Jan 1996

As far as the yellow of the Bolivian tricolour is concerned, I have no official recommendations, however, an official model of the Naval Ensign shows the middle stripe to be Pantone 107C.
Christopher Southworth, 04 Feb 2002

Symbolism

In Whitney Smith’s Flags through he Ages and Across the World [smi75b] the red is said to stand for the bravery of the Bolivian soldier, green is the fertility of the land and yellow represents the country’s mineral resources.
Stephan Hurford, 13 Feb 2000

In Webster’s Concise Encyclopedia of Flags, 1985 [mch85a]:

The three horizontal stripes of the Bolivian flag — red, yellow and green — respectively symbolize the gallantry of Bolivian soldiers, the country’s mineral wealth, and the fertility of the land.

According to [mch85a], the flag with its present order of stripes was introduced in 1851 but a number of variations had been used since Bolivia gained independence in 1825.
Jarig Bakker, 02 Jan 2002

State flag

The Bolivian coat of arms of 1888 is placed in the middle of the state flag.
Jarig Bakker, 02 Jan 2002

According to a detailed graphic of the arms at an official website, their proportions are 13:15 (and apparently occupying 13/17 the width of the central stripe), plus official Pantone colours of red 465, Process yellow and green 356.
Christopher Southworth, 02 Aug 2004

The Album 2000 [pay00] have the emblem much larger, about half of the flag hoist. It says:

2. State Flag 2:3

Variations

large emblem and 1:2 ratio

On Bolivian web sites [f.i., http://www.bolivian.com/bolivia/bandera.html] there is a new version of the national flag, which I believe is only for decorative reasons. It shows the coat-of-arms stretching out over all three stripes!
Ralf Stelter, 13 Jun 1999

According to an original piece received from the bolivian embassy in Paris (and a phone call from them), the flag should normally be in 2:3 ratio, the flag in 1:2 being an alternative variant.
Armand du Payrat, 28 Sep 1999

This large emblem verson is kind of unofficial, but ceremonial version used when “it matters”, if I may put it that way.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

My sources (real flags and designs from French Embassy in La Paz and from Bolivian Consulate in Paris) have various sizes of coat of arms in flag.
Armand du Payrat, 12 Mar 2001

emblem on blue disc

[smi80] shows the coat of arms set in light blue disk of diameter equal to yellow stripe height.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

My sources (real flags and designs from French Embassy in La Paz and from Bolivian Consulate in Paris) concurr to no blue disk.
Armand du Payrat, 12 Mar 2001

Presidential flag

The note beside the state flag in the Album 2000 [pay00] describes that it is also the personal flag for the President of the Republic and and that it is also used in 1:2 variant.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

Coat of Arms

The Bolvian State flag includes the coat of arms.
Kristian Söderberg 04 May 2003

The coat of Arms of Bolivia has now 10 stars, for all departments, including the lost maritime one.
Armand du Payrat, 10 Feb 1999

Calderón & Cortéz [a2d01] says that:

• the first Bolivian coat of arms was adopted in 1825 and had five stars representing the five departments forming the Bolivar Republic (as it was called back then): Chuquisaca, La Paz, Potosí, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.
• In 1826 new arms were adopted forming the basis for the present arms. These had six stars, a star for Oruro was added.
• These arms were revised in 1851, these had nine stars with stars added for Litoral (created in 1829), Tarija (created 1831) and Beni (created 1842).
• In 1867 a tenth star was added for the departmant of Tarata, created out of Cochabamba.
• In 1868 an eleventh star was added because the department of La Paz was split in two, one retaining the name of La Paz, the other becoming the department of Mejillones.
• In 1871 the arms returned to nine stars; probably the departemental changes were undone.
• In 1888 the present form of the arms were adopted, with nine stars (so the loss of Litoral was not reflected in the arms).
• And in 1961 a tenth star was added for Pando (created 1938).

Mark Sensen, 11 Mar 2002

The tenth star was added to the coat of arms in times of president Gral. René Barrientos Ortuño (1966-1969). It was pretension of Bolivia to seaside department of Litoral lost in war of 1879. Source: Velásquez, 1983 [vzz83].
Victor Lomantsov, 09 Mar 2002

The book [smi80] still shows the 9-star version (on blue disc).
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

In Webster’s New International Dictionary of ca. 1920 [wbs24], I found the a Coat of Arms: Mountain to the right and two hills to the left. To the right of the mountain is a tree. Left under the hill is an alpaca in red (running colors). Left to the top of the mountain is a golden sun on a sky-blue field. The shield is surrounded by a band; upper half is in gold with black inscription "BOLIVIA"; lower half in light blue with nine 5-pointed stars. Left and right to the shield are hanging flags (red, yellow and green). On top of the shield is a bird, which looks very much like a redbrown eagle. (Wings are comparably too short for a condor).
Jarig Bakker, 25 Jun 1999

The official arms has a oval border, yellow in the upper part with caption "Republica Boliviana" (red, also known with caption "Bolivia"), and blue in the lower part with six five pointed yellow stars. In centre is a llama of Andes, an alpaca, a small andine house (not quoted in the law), a palm, a sun, a mountain (the Potosí), a prairie and a sheaf of weath. The background must be white in the upper part and green in the lower part.
Jaume Ollé, 11 Jun 1999

In Webster’s Concise Encyclopedia of Flags, 1985 [mch85a]:

The arms consist of an oval shield depicting a landscape with a stylized illustration of Mount Potosi in bright sunshine and, in the foreground, a South American alpaca, a breadfruit tree, and a wheat sheaf, with a forest and a house in the middle distance. The upper golden border of the oval bears the name of the country BOLIVIA in red letters, and the lower blue border is charged with nine gold five-pointed stars representing the departments of the country. Behind the oval there are two crossed cannon barrels, six Bolivian flags, four rifles, a Phrygian cap of liberty, an Inca battle-axe and a laurel wreath; perched on the oval shield is an Andean condor.

A star was added to the national coat of arms in 1961 to represent the department of Pando. From Luis Eduardo Arce Cortéz & Ivette Durán Calderón’s Tratado internacional de vexilología y manual cívico del Boliviano [a2d01]:

Ley del 10 Noviembre de 1961
Escudo de Armas

Añádase una estrella en representación simbólica de la creación del Departamento de Pando

Víctor Paz Estanssoro
Presidente Constiticional de la Républica

Por cuanto el H. Congreso Nacional ha sancionado la siguiente ley:

El Congreso Nacional decreta:

Art. único.- Agrégase al Escudo de Armas de la Nación, una estrella más en representación simbólica de la creación del departamento de Pando. Comuníquese al Ejecutivo para los finos consuguintes.

Sala de Sesiones del H. Congreso Nacional
La Paz, 26 de octubre de 1961.