Bolivian military flags

Last modified: 2005-07-16 by antonio martins
Keywords: fin flash | roundel | port commander | anchor (blue) | military color |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• Military Colors
• Port Commander
• Air Force roundel
• Air Force fin flash

• Bolivian naval ensign
• Bolivia

Military Colors

The color carried by Bolivian army regiments is called the bandera de guerra. It is a silk national tricolor flag with the national coat-of-arms surrounded by olive and laurel branches, about 38 cm square, embroidered in bold relief in gold and silver thread on the center of the obverse side. The name and number of the unit is inscribed in a straight line of 10 cm high letters on the obverse side immediately below the shield. Battle honors are inscribed on the reverse on the yellow stripe. The pike is 2.55 meters, topped with a finial about 35 cm long and 8 cm wide in the shape of a plated brass lance-head. Below the lance head are attached gold cord and tassels and moiré streamers in the national colors, about 135 cm long by 10 cm wide.

Authority for these flags:

• Decree of 14 July 1888
• Regulation on Salutes, Honors and Parades, RC-02-13
• Regulation on Uniforms and Equipment, RA-01-04
• Regulation of Ceremonial and Protocol, CJ-RCG-203

Joe McMillan, 13 Feb 2002

Information based on a US Army attaché report from La Paz from the early 1950s:

• The dimensions of the flag are given as 60×93 cm, which seems more likely to be the size of a cavalry standard than an infantry color, but that’s what was reported.
• More interestingly, the pictures provided in the report showed the coat of arms on the center of the flag rotated counterclockwise about 35 or 40 degrees, so that the it appears upright when the flag drapes down from a vertical staff.
• The report also says that the pike had traditionally been covered with red plush, but that this practice had become obsolete.
• The report does not mention the laurel and olive branches around the coat of arms, but the decree of 1888 does mention it.

Unit standardd

In addition, each unit also has a standard, estandarte de la unidad, to which unit awards are attached, but I have nothing on the design.
Joe McMillan, 13 Feb 2002

Port Commander

Album 2000 [pay00] shows triangular pennant in ratio 1:2~, the upper half being horizontaly divided in blue-white-blue (blue being very dark — navy blue) and lower part being white with same blue anchor near hoist. This flag is new to me and I guess it is adopted only recently.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

My source was a photo taken by Michel Lupant at Cochabamba, in April 1998
Armand du Payrat, 12 Mar 2001

Is Port Commander a Navy position, or a civilian one?
António Martins, 10 May 2001

Air Force roundel

The Album 2000 [pay00] shows a red-yellow-green roundel.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001

Air Force fin flash

Fuerza Aérea Boliviana uses a square variation of the national flag as fin flash
Dov Gutterman, 07 Oct 1999

A note in Album 2000 [pay00] says that the national flag is painted on the fin.
Željko Heimer, 11 Mar 2001