The top color of the flag of Bolivia is red. Bolivia’s national flag is a horizontal tricolor arranged from top to bottom as red, yellow, and green, with each band occupying one-third of the flag.
The red band is traditionally associated with the blood shed by Bolivian patriots and soldiers. Yellow is commonly linked with the country’s mineral wealth, while green represents the fertility of the land and its natural resources. These symbolic interpretations help explain why the colors are remembered as more than a simple sequence.
Bolivia adopted the present red-yellow-green arrangement on 31 October 1851, during the presidency of Manuel Isidoro Belzu. The state and war flag may add Bolivia’s coat of arms at the center, while the civil flag is generally shown without it.
The tricolor should not be confused with the Wiphala, a multicolored square flag that Bolivia also recognizes as a national symbol. Nor should it be confused with Bolivia’s naval ensign, which uses a blue field and additional stars. For the standard national tricolor, red is unequivocally the upper stripe.