operation bolivar was a german espionage operation in latin america during world war ii. it was under the operational control of department vid 4 of germany's security service, and was primarily concerned with the collection and transmission of clandestine information from latin america to europe. overall, the germans were successful in establishing a secret radio communications network from their control station in argentina, as well as a courier system involving the use of spanish merchant vessels for the shipment of paper-form intelligence.