Bermejo River

views updated

Bermejo River

Bermejo River, waterway that arises in southern Bolivia, crosses the Chaco, and flows 650 miles through shifting channels to join the Paraguay River south of the Paraguayan port of Pilar, in Argentine territory. Along with the Pilcomayo, it is one of the two main tributaries of the Paraguay River. First explored in 1778, the river is navigable by small craft for 158 miles at all times and for 399 miles during high waters. The river, which carries large amounts of sediment, is difficult to navigate and serves few colonists. As a result of the Machaín-Irigoyen arbitration treaty signed by Paraguay and Argentina on 3 February 1876, the Pilcomayo River, rather than the Bermejo, became the western boundary separating Argentina and Paraguay.

See alsoParaguay Riverxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Although Thomas J. Page, La Plata, the Argentine Confederation, and Paraguay (1859), is a major primary source on Carlos Antonio López, it also provides an excellent description of Paraguayan rivers. Emilio Castro Boedo, Estudios sobre navegación del Bermejo y colonización del Choco (1873), focuses on the historical significance of the Bermejo. United States Army Corps of Engineers, The Paraguayan River System (1954), esp. pp. 18-19, evaluates the degree of navigability of Paraguayan rivers in the 1950s, with suggestions for development. Harris Gaylord Warren, Paraguay and the Triple Alliance: The Postwar Decade, 1869–1878 (1978), esp. pp. 258-261 and 280-283, includes some economic, geographic, and social information.

Additional Bibliography

Binational Commission for the Development of the Upper Bermejo and Grande de Tarija River Basin, and Organization of American States. Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis of the Binational Basin of the Bermejo River. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Organization of American States, 2000.

Starck, Daniel, and Gallardo, Eduardo. Guía excursion Corte de las Sierras subandinas en el Río Bermejo (límite entre Bolivia y Argentina). Salta, Argentina: Universidad de Salta, 1999.

                                     Vera Blinn Reber