Petroleum has not only sparked coups d’état in Latin America: it also set off a war—the Chaco War of 1932-1935—between South America’s two poorest peoples. René Zavaleta called the mutual massacre of Bolivians and Paraguayans “the war of the naked soldiers.”21 Louisiana Senator Huey Long shook the United States on May 30, 1934, with a violent speech accusing Standard Oil of New Jersey of provoking the conflict and of financing the Bolivian army so that it would appropriate the Paraguayan Chaco on its behalf.
