Bahía Negra

[2][3] Bahía Negra is located in the northeastern extreme of the Alto Paraguay department, about 137 km north of Fuerte Olimpo, which is the departmental capital.

The indigenous peoples inhabiting the area at the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century were already the iśir (commonly called "zamucos" or "chamacocos"), some Guarani or Guarani-assimilated groups such as the Itatines, and later the Pampids, known by the name of Caduveo.

The first Spaniards to reach these territories were those of the expeditions led by Captains Juan de Ayolas and his lieutenant Domingo Martínez de Irala, who founded the fort of La Candelaria on February 2, 1537, in the southern area of the great "Jarayes Lagoon"—on a map from 1600, it is located opposite the future Fuerte Olimpo, south of the mouth of the Brazilian Nabileque River that rejoins the Paraguay River forming an island, but it could also have been between the latitudes 21° S and 19° S, possibly located at the midpoint, near Bahía Negra— but it was depopulated in August of the same year.

In 1907 the port was annexed by Paraguayan forces and recovered by the Bolivian army in 1915, this would be one of the triggers for the very bloody Chaco War in which both litigating republics were involved, from September 9, 1932, to June 12, 1935.

There is also some potential for ecotourism (on the border with Bolivia, there is the Río Negro national park where jaguars, caimans, capybaras, peccaries, mbeorís,[definition needed] black howler monkeys, maned wolves, guazú pucús, pumas, and giant otters can be found).

Viceroyalty of Peru , on a map from 1600, with the governorates of Tucumán and Río de la Plata and Paraguay with the location of the "Puerto de La Candelaria" south of the Nabileque River in front of the future Fort Olimpo, and the "Puerto de los Reyes”, south of the current La Gaiba lagoon.