There are two landlocked countries in South America: Bolivia and Paraguay.
Bolivia lost its Pacific coastline to Chile after the War of the Pacific. Although it has no ocean coast today, Bolivia maintains navigable waterways and commercial transit arrangements that connect it indirectly to the sea. Paraguay, positioned in the continent’s interior, is the other landlocked state.
The Paraguay and Paraná river systems give Paraguay and Bolivia some access to international trade routes, but river access does not make either country coastal. A country is landlocked when it has no coastline on an ocean or an open sea.
South America is unusual because its only two landlocked countries are both on the mainland. Common mix-ups include counting countries with coastlines on rivers or inland lakes as coastal, or confusing Bolivia’s historical Pacific coastline with its present-day geography.