Source: https://www.fahnen-nostalgieshop.de/fotw/flags/bo.html
Timestamp: 2020-07-15 05:28:30
Document Index: 383450189

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 4', 'Art. 3', 'art. 2', 'Art. 1', 'Art. 4', 'Art. 5']

Confusion with other flags
New flag in 2006?
As far as I am aware, this flag is defined in Decret of 14 July 1888 and has not been changed since (though, possibly there were latter regulations that did not touch this simple flag).
The current Bolivian flag law was published as a special issue of the Bolivian official journal: Gaceta Oficial de Bolivia 2630/XLIV (2004.07.19), La Paz; it shows a large color depiction of the national arms and the title Simbolos Patrios (= Symbols of the Fatherland). I’m not sure wheather these new regulations do indeed introduce any changes or just bring toghether and clarify previously disperse legal provisions and/or costumary tradition.
Art. 4, point III, of the flag law prescribes the civil flag, which is the plain triband.
The Law of 5 November 1851 (of which I only have a small extract), the (Supreme) Decree of President Gregorio Pacheco of 11 July 1888, and the (Supreme) Decree of 30 July 2004 all place the red stripe uppermost.
Art. 3 of the flag law gives the official color shades: Red is PMS 485 CVU, yellow is PMS Process Yellow, and green is PMS 356 CVU. Red and yellow match both the images on these pages and the law text illustrations, but the shade of green not so: While the prescribed PMS value is darker than regular green ( ), the law text illustrations show a much brighter shade.
In art. 2 of the flag law, the ratio of the flag is given as 7,5:11, which is as clumsy as it comes for a flag with three equal-height stripes. (A much more even fraction to express this ratio is 15:22.) This pretty odd ratio seems to be a novelty, as all previous sources we heard of mentioned 2:3 instead (which is not very different from 15:22, anyway). The question is, as said, wheather this ratio prescription indeed indends to introduce a change, or merely legislates what was previously unregulated…
I also wondered why a regulated size of 15:22, but since there is only 0.034% of flag width in it I would imagine that most flags would actually be made 2:3?
Art. 1 of the flag law, mentions the symbolism of the colors, as patriotic bloodshed, nature’s bounty, and verdure and hope. (Which is all bogus, as we know.)
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.
Art. 4, point I, of the flag law prescribes the state flag; the image which illustrates it is very low quality and there is no indication (neither textual nor pictoric) of the size of the emblem — only that it should be “centered” on the yellow stripe and showing on both sides of the flag. (It is also left unsaid whather the embelm is mirrored or rotated on the flag’s reverse.)
The Album 2000 [pay00] have the emblem much larger, about half of the flag hoist. It says:
The note beside this flag 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. What’s the right size of the coat of arms in the state flag, it is prescribed anywhere at all? The book [smi80] indicates the flag use only as , possibly at that time there was no regulation regarding the state ships on lakes or so.
On Bolivian web sites [f.i., 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!
image by António Martins, 09 May 2004
[smi80] shows the coat of arms set in light blue disk of diameter equal to yellow stripe height.
Art. 5, point IV, of the flag law, which prescribes the national coat of arms, includes a provision that «when needed» the it should have a “pearl blue” background, which may account for this variant / error.
The flag of Bolivia is easily confusable with those of Burma, Lithuania, Ethiopia, and Ghana, to mention only national flags.
“War flag”?
With St. George
In the a collection of world flags assembled by Priest Legros shown in the castle of La Palice in Lapalisse, France, a flag of Bolivia, horizontally divided green-yellow-red with St. George trampling the dragon in the middle of the yellow stripe.
I’m sure that this is a is a misidentification — this, with St. George and the green on top, is an Ethiopian or Rastafarian.I wouldn’t be surprised if this confusion arised more often, with the red stripe of the Rasta flag being so often shown on top (which is not even this case, though).