The territories in conflict are recognized as Peruvian.
183-488: [REDACTED] Ecuador Armament support by: 34 killed (official) Brasilia Presidential Act The Cenepa War or Third Ecuadorian-Peruvian War (26 January – 28 February 1995), also known as the Alto Cenepa War , was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru , fought over control of an area in Peruvian territory (i.e. in the eastern side of the Cordillera del Cóndor , Province of Condorcanqui , Región Amazonas , Republic of Perú) near
366-473: A 2008 referendum , a new constitution implemented leftist reforms. In December 2008, Correa declared Ecuador's national debt illegitimate, based on the argument that it was odious debt contracted by prior corrupt and despotic regimes. He announced that the country would default on over $ 3 billion worth of bonds, and he succeeded in reducing the price of outstanding bonds by more than 60% by fighting creditors in international courts . He brought Ecuador into
549-545: A de facto border, already considered broken by both countries since 1981. During the second half of December both sides began to hastily reinforce their military presence in and around the Cenepa valley area, laying down new minefields, preparing supply bases, and intensifying the patrolling activity. By the end of December, profiting from its internal lines of communications, the Ecuadorian Army had strengthened to
732-525: A Peace Treaty known as the Rio Protocol in 1942. This treaty — brokered by the US, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, which became known as the "guarantors" of the peace settlement — had the main purpose of defining the hitherto badly defined borders between Ecuador and Peru. The process of demarcation, begun in mid-1942, came to a halt in 1948, when populist Ecuadorian President José María Velasco Ibarra declared
915-595: A Peruvian Civil Guard patrol. These troops were then followed by some 200 Ecuadorian armed men, which attacked the police station at Aguas Verdes for 30 minutes, to which the Peruvians reacted by sending an infantry company to Aguas Verdes and driving the Ecuadorians back across the Zarumilla, holding back a potential advance and waiting for reinforcements. The fighting then spread to the entire border area along
1098-507: A Plan to return to the constitutional system through universal elections. This plan enabled the new democratically elected president to assume the duties of the executive office. Elections were held on 29 April 1979, under a new constitution. Jaime Roldós Aguilera was elected president, garnering over one million votes, the most in Ecuadorian history. He took office on 10 August as the first constitutionally elected president, after nearly
1281-678: A brief war erupted between Colombia and Peru, over Peru's claims to the Caquetá region, which ended with Peru reluctantly signing the Salomon-Lozano Treaty on 24 March 1922. Ecuador protested this secret treaty, since Colombia gave away Ecuadorian claimed land to Peru that Ecuador had given to Colombia in 1916. On 21 July 1924, the Ponce-Castro Oyanguren Protocol was signed between Ecuador and Peru where both agreed to hold direct negotiations and to resolve
1464-727: A broader dispute between what was then Gran Colombia and Peru. It revolved around whether Ecuador's territory extended beyond the Andes mountain range to the Marañon ( Amazon ) river, including the Amazonian basin. The lack of resolution of the dispute, despite several attempts by both parties, led to several conflicting treaties being signed between different parties to the conflict, including Colombia and Brazil , and led to war on several occasions. The first of these armed conflicts took place in 1828, when Peru fought against Gran Colombia in
1647-525: A considerable degree its presence in the area, having deployed a number of units, foremost among them several Special Forces formations, as well as artillery and BM-21 multiple rocket launchers on the heights of the Cordillera del Cóndor . The entire Ecuadorian perimeter was covered by antiaircraft batteries and, most significantly, several teams carrying Soviet-made SA-16 Igla and British-made Blowpipe man-portable surface-to-air missiles . Meanwhile,
1830-538: A decade of civilian and military dictatorships. In 1980, he founded the Partido Pueblo, Cambio y Democracia (People, Change, and Democracy Party) after withdrawing from the Concentración de Fuerzas Populares (Popular Forces Concentration). He governed until 24 May 1981, when he died, along with his wife and the minister of defense Marco Subia Martinez , when his Air Force plane crashed in heavy rain near
2013-591: A division of the former territory of the Royal Audience of Quito . Quito, which remained the capital of the department and republic, is located only about 40 kilometers (25 mi), 1 ⁄ 4 of a degree , south of the equator. Various peoples had settled in the area of future Ecuador before the arrival of the Incas . The archeological evidence suggests that the Paleo-Indians ' first dispersal into
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#17327728555042196-497: A majority of the population, although 13 native languages are also recognized, including Quechua and Shuar . Ecuador is a representative democratic presidential republic and a developing country whose economy is highly dependent on exports of commodities, primarily petroleum and agricultural products. The country is a founding member of the United Nations , Organization of American States , Mercosur , PROSUR , and
2379-454: A membership of 131 ex-combatants, some of them with long-term health disorders caused by the war. ALDHU, a human rights NGO, has put the total number of mortal casualties for both sides at around 500. This figure was also given by Ecuadorian senior officers after the war, reflecting the fact that Peruvians found themselves attacking well-protected Ecuadorian positions and subjected to continuous ambushes and well-aimed artillery and rocket fire from
2562-590: A reconnaissance mission at the mouth of the Jambelí Strait to search for the presence of artillery. The following day, cruisers Coronel Bolognesi and Almirante Guise , during a patrol in front of the Jambelí Strait, bombed Punta Jambelí and Puerto Bolívar, in preparation for the Peruvian advance on El Oro. The La Tina–Macará Front, extending from the Quebrada de Pilares to La Tina and Chinchipe ,
2745-407: A sergeant and two soldiers to receive an answer after a two-hour ultimatum. They were greeted with a burst of machine-gun fire which killed the sergeant and wounded the other two soldiers. According to Ecuador, the coat of arms fell off on its own and was moved by the consul himself. Following the event, news did reach Peru on the alleged events, but Ecuadorian authorities managed to communicate with
2928-489: A series of peaceful treaties, and Peru after a short war in which the Protocol of Rio de Janeiro was signed in 1942. During the struggle for independence , before Peru or Ecuador became independent, areas of the former Vice Royalty of New Granada declared themselves independent from Spain. A few months later, a part of the Peruvian liberation army of San Martín decided to occupy the independent cities of Tumbez and Jaén, with
3111-462: A signal that the Peruvian military, with or without the knowledge of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori , was preparing a military operation in the Cenepa valley. The next day, the decision to act already taken, the Ecuadorian local commander informed his Peruvian counterpart that, from 24 January onwards, any Peruvian helicopter flying over Ecuadorian positions would be shot down. On the morning of Thursday, 26 January 1995, after three days of march,
3294-522: A small band of Spaniards headed by Francisco Pizarro reached Cajamarca and lured Atahualpa into a trap ( battle of Cajamarca ). Pizarro promised to release Atahualpa if he made good his promise of filling a room full of gold. But, after a mock trial, the Spaniards executed Atahualpa by strangulation. New infectious diseases such as smallpox , endemic to the Europeans, caused high fatalities among
3477-596: Is based on its leading role in trying to secure an independent, local government. Although the new government lasted no more than two months, it had important repercussions and was an inspiration for the independence movement of the rest of Spanish America. Today, 10 August is celebrated as Independence Day, a national holiday . On 9 October 1820, the Department of Guayaquil became the first territory in Ecuador to gain its independence from Spain, and it spawned most of
3660-407: Is known as the 1936 status quo border line. However, by 1938 both nations were once again holding minor border skirmishes. That same year, the entire Ecuadorian Cabinet, which was composed of high-ranking army officers who served as advisors for General Alberto Enríquez Gallo (who had taken charge of government after a military coup d'état ), resigned from government in order to take command of
3843-505: Is worth noting that Pinochet, who had lived in Ecuador during the second half of the 1950s as a military instructor, had a deep affection towards the country and, a couple of years later, in November–December 1997, made a controversial and highly publicized visit to Ecuador where he attended a series of ceremonies and was given six military and civilian decorations by that country's civilian and military authorities. Argentina admitted to
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#17327728555044026-586: The 20 km walk . Ecuador adopted the United States dollar on 13 April 2000 as its national currency and on 11 September, the country eliminated the Ecuadorian sucre , in order to stabilize the country's economy . The US Dollar has been the only official currency of Ecuador since then. The emergence of the Amerindian population as an active constituency has added to the democratic volatility of
4209-571: The Axis Powers in World War II favoring Peru with the territory they occupied at the time the war came to an end. The 1944 Glorious May Revolution followed a military-civilian rebellion and a subsequent civic strike which successfully removed Carlos Arroyo del Río as a dictator from Ecuador's government. However, a post-Second World War recession and popular unrest led to a return to populist politics and domestic military interventions in
4392-659: The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009. Correa's administration reduced the high levels of poverty and unemployment in Ecuador. Correa's three consecutive terms (from 2007 to 2017) were followed by his former Vice President Lenín Moreno 's four years as president (2017–21). After being elected in 2017, President Moreno's government adopted economically liberal policies, such as reduction of public spending , trade liberalization , and flexibility of
4575-538: The Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE) was frantically getting up to operational status its fleet of subsonic and supersonic jet aircraft, and adapting existing airfields in southeastern Ecuador to function as forward-deployment bases. For the Ecuadorian military, especially the Army and Air Force, the memories of the conflict of 1981 and its embarrassing outcome were still fresh, the lessons learned, and every measure
4758-586: The Ecuadorian Army . Meanwhile, in Quito , there were public demonstrations of people chanting "Down With Peru! Long Live Ecuador!". Peru's response to the events taking place in Ecuador was provided by foreign minister Carlos Concha Cárdenas , who stated, "In Peru we have not yet lost our heads. Our country is in a process of prosperous development and the Government heads would have to be completely mad to think of war." The social situation of Peru at that time
4941-648: The Galapagos Islands . The 19th century was marked by instability for Ecuador with a rapid succession of rulers. The first president of Ecuador was the Venezuelan-born Juan José Flores , who was ultimately deposed. Leaders who followed him included Vicente Rocafuerte ; José Joaquín de Olmedo ; José María Urbina ; Diego Noboa ; Pedro José de Arteta ; Manuel de Ascásubi ; and Flores's own son, Antonio Flores Jijón , among others. The conservative Gabriel García Moreno unified
5124-602: The Galápagos Islands . In recognition of its unique ecological heritage, the new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable rights of nature . The country's name means " Equator " in Spanish, truncated from the Spanish official name, República del Ecuador ( lit. "Republic of the Equator"), derived from the former Ecuador Department of Gran Colombia established in 1824 as
5307-593: The Gran Colombia–Peru War . After the dissolution of Gran Colombia, the conflict resumed with Ecuador , with skirmishes taking place often and the first Ecuadorian–Peruvian War taking place between Ecuador and Peru from 1857 to 1860. The dispute was again brought into the spotlight after the signing of the Salomón–Lozano Treaty in March 1922 by the governments of Colombia and Peru, which at that time
5490-590: The Inca Empire in 1463 sharing the same language. In contrast, when the Incas made incursions into coastal Ecuador and the eastern Amazon jungles of Ecuador, they found both the environment and indigenous people more hostile. Moreover, when the Incas tried to subdue them, these indigenous people withdrew to the interior and resorted to guerrilla tactics. As a result, Inca expansion into the Amazon Basin and
5673-592: The Non-Aligned Movement . According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research , between 2006 and 2016, poverty decreased from 36.7% to 22.5% and annual per capita GDP growth was 1.5 percent (as compared to 0.6 percent over the prior two decades). At the same time, the country's Gini index of economic inequality improved from 0.55 to 0.47. One of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, Ecuador hosts many endemic plants and animals, such as those of
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5856-744: The Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire . Moreover, to add legitimacy to his claims, on 16 February 1840, Flores signed a treaty with Spain, whereby Flores convinced Spain to officially recognize Ecuadorian independence and its sole rights to colonial titles over Spain's former colonial territory known anciently to Spain as the Kingdom and Presidency of Quito. Ecuador during its long and turbulent history has lost most of its contested territories to each of its more powerful neighbors, such as Colombia in 1832 and 1916, Brazil in 1904 through
6039-711: The Treaty of Guayaquil (1829) which Peru reluctantly signed, after the overwhelmingly outnumbered Gran Colombian force led by Antonio José de Sucre defeated President and General La Mar's Peruvian invasion force in the Battle of Tarqui . In addition, Ecuador's eastern border with the Portuguese colony of Brazil in the Amazon Basin was modified before the Wars of Independence by the First Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777) between
6222-592: The United States paved the way for the opening of diplomatic conversations that ultimately led to the signing of a definitive peace agreement (the Brasilia Presidential Act ) on 26 October 1998. The peace agreement saw some of the territory being leased to Ecuador for a time. It was followed by the formal demarcation of the border on 13 May 1999 and the end of the multinational MOMEP (Military Observer Mission for Ecuador and Peru) troop deployment on 17 June 1999, which effectively put an end to one of
6405-541: The War of the '41 (Spanish: Guerra del 41 ), was a South American border war fought between 5–31 July 1941. It was the first of three military conflicts between Ecuador and Peru during the 20th century. During the war, Peru occupied the western Ecuadorian province of El Oro and parts of the Andean province of Loja . Although the war took place during World War II , it is unrelated to that conflict, as neither country
6588-412: The 16th century, achieving independence in 1820 as part of Gran Colombia , from which it emerged as a sovereign state in 1830. The legacy of both empires is reflected in Ecuador's ethnically diverse population, with most of its 17.8 million people being mestizos , followed by large minorities of Europeans , Native American , African , and Asian descendants. Spanish is the official language spoken by
6771-463: The 1940s. While Ecuador was forced to renounce its decades-old territorial claims as Tumbes, Jaen and Maynas as well as on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera, as well as the entire western area of the Cenepa headwaters, Peru "gives" to Ecuador, as a "private property" but without sovereignty and only for commemorative and non-military events, one square kilometer of its territory, in the area where
6954-538: The 1960s, while foreign companies developed oil resources in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 1972, construction of the Andean pipeline was completed. The pipeline brought oil from the east side of the Andes to the coast, making Ecuador South America's second largest oil exporter. In 1978, the city of Quito and the Galápagos Islands were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites , making the first two properties in
7137-592: The 1994 date had been illegal. Ravinet further stated that, after discussing the matter with his Peruvian counterpart, Roberto Chiabra, the situation had been resolved. Yet, the Peruvian government did not find the February 5, 1995, and March 22, 2005, declarations as acceptable or sufficient; and went on to send a note of protest to the Chilean government. Peru further claimed that Chile should have maintained absolute neutrality and that this alleged weapons commerce during
7320-521: The Americas occurred near the end of the last glacial period , around 16,500–13,000 years ago. The first people who reached Ecuador may have journeyed by land from North and Central America or by boat down the Pacific Ocean coastline. Even though their languages were unrelated, these groups developed similar groups of cultures, each based in different environments. The people of the coast combined agriculture with fishing, hunting, and gathering;
7503-493: The Amerindian population during the first decades of Spanish rule, as they had no immunity . At the same time, the natives were forced into the encomienda labor system for the Spanish. In 1563, Quito became the seat of a real audiencia (administrative district) of Spain and part of the Viceroyalty of Peru and later the Viceroyalty of New Granada . The 1797 Riobamba earthquake , which caused up to 40,000 casualties,
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7686-629: The Caqueta river and the Marañon-Amazon river. Peru ignored these protests and created the Department of Loreto in 1853 with its capital in Iquitos. Peru briefly occupied Guayaquil again in 1860, since Peru thought that Ecuador was selling some of the disputed land for development to British bond holders, but returned Guayaquil after a few months. The border dispute was then submitted to Spain for arbitration from 1880 to 1910, but to no avail. In
7869-579: The Caquetá river. Later, Ecuador contended that the Republic of Colombia, while reorganizing its government, unlawfully made its eastern border provisional and that Colombia extended its claims south to the Napo River because it said that the Government of Popayán extended its control all the way to the Napo River. When Ecuador seceded from the Gran Colombia, Peru contested Ecuador's claims with
8052-545: The Cedula of 1802 an ecclesiastical instrument, which had nothing to do with political borders. Peru began its de facto occupation of disputed Amazonian territories, after it signed a secret 1851 peace treaty in favor of Brazil. This treaty disregarded Spanish rights that were confirmed during colonial times by a Spanish-Portuguese treaty over the Amazon regarding territories held by illegal Portuguese settlers. Peru began occupying
8235-712: The Cenepa War went against resolutions made by the United Nations and the Organization of American States . In the end, the whole operation was revealed to be the planning of former dictator Pinochet, then chief of the Armed Forces (until 1998). Quoting Peruvian ambassador to Chile in 1995 (de Rivero), the Chilean Sub-secretary (Fernández) " pointed out to me that President Frei and chancellor (foreign minister) Insulza had been deeply worried by
8418-497: The Chilean Sub-secretary of Foreign Relations, Mariano Fernández, telling the Peruvian ambassador in Chile, Alfonso de Rivero, on February 2, 1995, that the Chilean government would take immediate measures to stop any other possible operations of this nature. In this communication, Fernández is reported to have concurred to de Rivero's residence and revealed that only 9mm ammunition, which had been paid with anticipation, had been loaded in
8601-794: The Colombian government's representatives an agreement was reached and the Muñoz Vernaza-Suarez Treaty was signed 15 July 1916, in which Colombian rights to the Putumayo river were recognized as well as Ecuador's rights to the Napo river and the new border was a line that ran midpoint between those two rivers. In this way, Ecuador gave up the claims it had to the Amazonian territories between the Caquetá River and Napo River to Colombia, thus cutting itself off from Brazil. Later,
8784-466: The Condor range. The Ecuadorian account of the meeting also states that the Peruvian officer went on to deliver an ultimatum: if the Ecuadorians did not abandon the area by the end of the week, the Peruvians would dislodge them by force. After the meeting — if not before it — both Quito and Lima began to send reinforcements to the area, while further meetings between superior officers didn't manage to break
8967-451: The Cordillera del Cóndor, in Peru's land), and a larger outpost, "Coangos", on the high ground overlooking them from the north (see map). In turn, the "guarantors" (Warrantors) military considered offensive both Ecuadorian and Peruvian moves, due to the fact that, lacking official border markers, the Ecuadorian and Peruvian military had long since agreed to consider the line of the Condor range
9150-648: The District of the South as far back as April 1830. Moreover, the Cauca region, throughout its long history, had very strong economic and cultural ties with the people of Ecuador. Also, the Cauca region, which included such cities as Pasto , Popayán , and Buenaventura , had always been dependent on the Presidencia or Audiencia of Quito. Fruitless negotiations continued between the governments of Bogotá and Quito, where
9333-479: The Eastern side of the Cordillera del Cóndor. In retrospect, it is likely that Lima was expecting a repetition of the 1981 incident, unaware of the scale of the Ecuadorian deployment. Thus, as a preliminary to the attack, on 21 January Peruvian helicopters began a series of reconnaissance and troop insertion flights on the rear of the Ecuadorian positions, which continued for the next two days. The next day, 22 January,
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#17327728555049516-497: The Ecuadorian Special Forces detachment arrived undetected at the small Peruvian outpost "Base Norte" and launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting garrison. A fierce firefight ensued, but the Peruvians were eventually forced to disperse through the jungle, leaving behind a number of dead soldiers, as well as weapons and supplies. The Cenepa War had begun. But it was the Peruvian troops that finally evicted
9699-430: The Ecuadorian accounts were supposedly reconnoitering the approaches to the Ecuadorian outpost of Cueva de los Tayos. Following the customary regulations put in place by both armies for the handling of such instances, the so-called Cartillas de Seguridad y Confianza (Guidelines for Safety and Mutual Confidence), the captured Peruvian personnel were delivered to their own officers without further incident. Always following
9882-453: The Ecuadorian accounts, a subsequent incident took place two days later, on January 11, when another Peruvian patrol was detected near a place called the "Y", a point of tactical importance in the Ecuadorian lines. Shots were fired, apparently causing no casualties on either side. By the third week of January, the Peruvian high command had deployed to the Cenepa area what it considered to be enough troops to clear any and all Ecuadorian troops on
10065-670: The Ecuadorian base of Tiwinza was located (level 1061), focal point of the war, inside the Peruvian soil, anyone born in Tiwinza will be considered Peruvian. The final demarcation of the border came into effect on May 13, 1999. Figures given for losses during the Cenepa War vary widely, especially regarding human casualties. Ecuadorian military sources put the casualties at 34 killed recognized by Comando Conjunto de las FFAA del Ecuador and 154 killed and wounded recognized by Asociación de ex combatientes del Cenepa, Quito, Ecuador. As of February 2005, an Ecuadorian Cenepa war veterans' association had
10248-399: The Ecuadorian border troops. Finally, on 23 July 1941, the Peruvians launched a major invasion, crossing the Zarumilla river in force and advancing into the Ecuadorian province of El Oro . During the course of the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War , Peru gained control over part of the disputed territory and some parts of the province of El Oro, and some parts of the province of Loja , demanding that
10431-583: The Ecuadorian coastal provinces, establishing itself as an independent state. Its inhabitants celebrated what is now Ecuador's official Independence Day on 24 May 1822. The rest of Ecuador gained its independence after Antonio José de Sucre defeated the Spanish Royalist forces at the Battle of Pichincha , near Quito . Following the battle, Ecuador joined Simón Bolívar 's Republic of Gran Colombia , also including modern-day Colombia , Venezuela , and Panama . In 1830, Ecuador separated from Gran Colombia and became an independent republic. Two years later, it annexed
10614-459: The Ecuadorian forces defending the province of El Oro during the war, a group of Peruvian civilians, including policemen, crossed the Zarumilla River onto Ecuadorian soil. The Peruvian policemen are then said to have fired first when a border patrol was spotted, killing one soldier. This was followed by the widespread exchange of fire between troops on the opposing banks of the Zarumilla, while two Ecuadorian officers sent to Aguas Verdes to speak with
10797-426: The Ecuadorian government give up its territorial claims. The Peruvian Navy blocked the port of Guayaquil , almost cutting all supplies to the Ecuadorian troops. After a few weeks of war and under pressure by the United States and several Latin American nations, all fighting came to a stop. Ecuador and Peru came to an accord formalized in the Rio Protocol , signed on 29 January 1942, in favor of hemispheric unity against
10980-432: The Ecuadorian military shot down Peruvian aircraft and helicopters and Peruvian infantry marched into southern Ecuador. Each country blamed the other for the onset of hostilities, known as the Cenepa War . Sixto Durán Ballén , the Ecuadorian president, famously declared that he would not give up a single centimeter of Ecuador. Popular sentiment in Ecuador became strongly nationalistic against Peru: graffiti could be seen on
11163-460: The Ecuadorian planes; that a Chilean lawyer representing Ecuador had demanded the fulfillment of the contract and that Ecuadorian military personnel who came on the plane asked for additional armament, only to have this petition denied; however Peruvian Caretas magazine reported that part of this information wasn't precise (without specifying which part). Apparently, the Chilean authorities were being sincere, as President Frei only took notice of
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#173277285550411346-496: The Ecuadorian post of Quebrada Seca, where they had concentrated the bulk of their anti-aircraft artillery and placed machine guns. According to Peruvian accounts, instead of parachuting to safety, Quiñones chose to sacrifice himself by crashing his damaged aircraft onto the Ecuadorian position, rendering the battery out of action. This version of events has been subsequently called into question by Ecuadorian military authorities, who have stated that there were no anti-aircraft guns in
11529-425: The Ecuadorian troops from their territory after the intense bombardment by land and air of the bases of the Cave of the Tayos, the South Base and the false Tiwinza. The following days, the events unfolded in quick succession. Below is a complete chronological summary of the war. By the beginning of March 1995, the MOMEP observers had entered the area and began to supervise the separation of forces. In accordance with
11712-426: The Ecuadorian troops which had been deployed to the dispute zone. On 11 January 1941, alleging that the Ecuadorians had been staging incursions and even occupations of the Peruvian territory of Zarumilla , the Peruvian president, Manuel Prado , ordered the formation of the Northern Army Detachment ( Spanish : Agrupamiento del Norte ), a military unit in charge of the Northern Operational Theatre. According to
11895-436: The Ecuadorians detected around twenty Peruvian troops setting up a heliport to the north and rear of the Ecuadorian forward outposts. The stepping up of the Peruvian air operations, combined with the surprise discovery of a Peruvian base on the rear of the Ecuadorian perimeter, compelled the Ecuadorian high command to take the initiative. That same day, a reinforced Special Forces company was ordered to advance undetected through
12078-432: The Gran Colombian federation on 13 May 1830. After Ecuador's separation, the Department of Cauca voluntarily decided to unite itself with Ecuador due to instability in the central government of Bogota. The Venezuelan born President of Ecuador, the general Juan José Flores , with the approval of the Ecuadorian congress annexed the Department of Cauca on 20 December 1830, since the government of Cauca had called for union with
12261-419: The Incas two generations of rulers— Topa Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac —to absorb them into the Inca Empire . People belonging to the confederations that gave them the most problems were deported to distant areas of Peru, Bolivia, and north Argentina. Similarly, a number of loyal Inca subjects from Peru and Bolivia were brought to Ecuador to prevent rebellion. Thus, the region of highland Ecuador became part of
12444-572: The Pacific Ocean known as Tumbes . In Ecuador's southern Andes Mountain region where the Marañon cuts across, Ecuador had claims to an area it called Jaén de Bracamoros . These areas were included as part of the territory of Gran Colombia by Bolivar on 17 December 1819, during the Congress of Angostura when the Republic of Gran Colombia was created. Tumbes declared itself independent from Spain on 17 January 1821, and Jaén de Bracamoros on 17 June 1821, without any outside help from revolutionary armies. However, that same year, Peruvian forces participating in
12627-400: The Pacific coast of Ecuador was hampered. The indigenous people of the Amazon jungle and coastal Ecuador remained relatively autonomous until the Spanish soldiers and missionaries arrived in force. The Amazonian people and the Cayapas of Coastal Ecuador were the only groups to resist both Inca and Spanish domination, maintaining their languages and cultures well into the 21st century. Before
12810-427: The Peruvian border. Many people believe that he was assassinated by the CIA, given the multiple death threats against him because of his reformist agenda, the deaths in automobile crashes of two key witnesses before they could testify during the investigation, and the sometimes contradictory accounts of the incident. Roldos was immediately succeeded by Vice President Osvaldo Hurtado. In 1984, León Febres Cordero from
12993-421: The Peruvian consul, who offered to explain the events to the Peruvian side. However, hours later the consul instead abandoned the city along with his family. The Ecuadorians also disputed the reasoning behind the provocations by the Ecuadorian side, as it was well known that Peruvian troops had organized themselves near the city, and news had reached the area of the events taking place in El Oro province. Prior to
13176-487: The Peruvian hinterland and Lima to Bagua AFB, where they were transferred to light transport aircraft for the flight to the Ciro Alegría base. From this base, the final flight to the Peruvian forward bases in the Cenepa valley, mainly Observation Post 1 (PV-1), was made aboard Peru's Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-17 helicopter fleet, very often under poor weather conditions, with heavy rain and low cloud cover. Altogether, by
13359-504: The Peruvian local commanding officer were told by Peruvian authorities to go back to their lines. According to Peru, Ecuadorian Army troops from the garrison of Huaquillas , a town on the bank of the Zarumilla river, which then served as the status quo line in the extreme left of the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border, crossed into the Peruvian border post at Aguas Verdes, a town directly in front of Huaquillas, and opened fire on
13542-474: The Peruvians were escorted to the Ecuadorian outpost of "Base Sur", where the patrol was given supplies before continuing their journey. Afterwards, realizing Base Sur was actually in Peruvian-claimed territory, the Peruvians asked the Ecuadorians for a meeting of superior officers. The meeting, which the Peruvians date to December 20 and the Ecuadorians to December 12, took place in "Base Sur", between
13725-477: The Peruvians, came to symbolize the war because of the bitter clashes that took place around it, and the emotional importance that both sides attached to its possession. The conflict continued until the signing of a ceasefire and the eventual separation of forces, supervised by the MOMEP, a multinational mission of military observers from the "guarantor" countries of the 1942 Rio Protocol : Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and
13908-664: The President of the United States of America, signed a Presidential Act, which proclaimed "the definitive resolution of the border disputes between the two nations". In a decision that certain political sectors on both sides took as a setback, the Guarantors of the Rio Protocol determined that the boundary of the delimited and undemarcated zone was in fact the Cordillera del Cóndor line, as Peru had been claiming from
14091-446: The Protocol and the ruling of the 1945 arbitration. By the beginning of the 1950s, the situation had come to a deadlock. For the next 46 years, a 78 km-long strip of mostly unpopulated, and little explored territory, deep in the Amazonian rainforest and almost inaccessible by land, was left without a specific boundary; this served as a flashpoint for recurrent diplomatic and military crisis between Ecuador and Peru. While Peru held to
14274-407: The Protocol impossible to implement in the area of the Cordillera del Cóndor , claiming inconsistencies between the instructions of the Protocol and the geographical realities on the ground. Peru contested this view, stating that such discrepancies had already been solved in an arbitration that had taken place in 1945, and that all that had to be done was to close the border following the guidelines of
14457-459: The Putomayo and Marañon Rivers. In July 1941, troops were mobilized in both countries. Peru had an army of 11,681 troops who faced a poorly supplied and inadequately armed Ecuadorian force of 2,300, of which only 1,300 were deployed in the southern provinces. Hostilities erupted on 5 July 1941, when Peruvian forces crossed the Zarumilla river at several locations, testing the strength and resolve of
14640-531: The Rio Protocol), no serious incidents happened. Then, at the end of 1994, a new crisis suddenly erupted, this time in the undemarcated border area proper, around the Condor range and the Cenepa headwaters. Peruvian accounts state that in November 1994, a Peruvian patrol, advancing through the Cenepa headwaters, was intercepted by an Ecuadorian patrol. Being told they had crossed into Ecuadorian territory,
14823-535: The Royal Decree of July 15, 1802, passed to the Viceroyalty of Peru and, according to the Peruvian version, Ecuador had occupied, taking advantage of the fact that Peru was facing Chile in the War of the Pacific of 1879. The territory of Sucumbíos had been nominally transferred to Peru in 1922 by Colombia as a result of the Salomón–Lozano Treaty , but the act was not recognized by Ecuador. Faced with
15006-693: The Social Christian Party was elected president. Rodrigo Borja Cevallos of the Democratic Left (Izquierda Democrática, or ID) party won the presidency in 1988, winning the runoff election against Abdalá Bucaram (brother in law of Jaime Roldos and founder of the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party). His government was committed to improving human rights protection and carried out some reforms, notably an opening of Ecuador to foreign trade. The Borja government negotiated
15189-523: The Treaty of Itamaraty and the Declaration of Montevideo, the Ecuadorians began to withdraw all their units to the base of Coangos, while the Peruvians were to do the same to PV-1. From there, troops would be extracted according to a schedule implement by the MOMEP. All combatants were withdrawn from the delimited and undemarcated area by May 5, 1995. A demilitarized zone came into effect on August 4 of
15372-617: The Trujillo revolution occupied both Jaén and Tumbes. Peruvian generals, without any legal titles backing them up and with Ecuador still federated with the Gran Colombia, had the desire to annex Ecuador to the Republic of Peru at the expense of the Gran Colombia, feeling that Ecuador was once part of the Inca Empire. On 28 July 1821, Peruvian independence was proclaimed in Lima by San Martín, and Tumbes and Jaén, which were included as part of
15555-514: The USA. The Cenepa war produced far-reaching consequences for relations between Ecuador and Peru. Among the effects of the war that paved the way for a definitive settlement of the border issues included the military outcome of the brief conflict; the lack of vindication of the Ecuadorian armed forces after the disappointing results of the wars of 1858, 1941, and 1981; and the Peruvians’ realization of
15738-437: The United States of America) ruled that the border of the undelineated zone was to be set at the line of the Cordillera del Cóndor . While Ecuador had to give up its decades-old territorial claims to the eastern slopes of the Cordillera, as well as to the entire western area of Cenepa headwaters, Peru was compelled to give to Ecuador, in perpetual lease but without sovereignty, 1 km (0.39 sq mi) of its territory, in
15921-561: The Yaupi River on August 11, when they were attacked by Peruvian soldiers. After half an hour of combat, the Ecuadorians were defeated, consolidating the Peruvian domain in the Yaupi and Santiago rivers. The Peruvian Navy had an advantage over the ill-equipped Ecuadorian Navy . The results favored Peru, such as in the successful blockade of Guayaquil. On July 25, the Peruvian destroyer Almirante Villar set sail from Zorritos with
16104-529: The Zarumilla River, war broke out with Peru. Peru claimed that Ecuador's military presence in Peruvian-claimed territory was an invasion; Ecuador, for its part, claimed that Peru had recently invaded Ecuador around the Zarumilla River and that Peru since Ecuador's independence from Spain has systematically occupied Tumbez, Jaén, and most of the disputed territories in the Amazonian Basin between
16287-576: The Zarumilla River. By 6 July, the Peruvian aviation was conducting airstrikes against the Ecuadorian border posts along the river. After the 5th, hostilities along the border continued. As a result, on the night of July 6, the senior commander of the Ecuadorian Army ordered the formation of the 5th Infantry Brigade in El Oro, under the command of Colonel Luis Rodríguez. The Peruvian offensive against Ecuador began on July 23, being carried out by
16470-413: The aftermath of the incident saw both countries accusing each other of violating the accord and reinforcing their military presence in the delimited and undemarcated area. Still, for the next three years, tensions were kept at manageable levels. Apart from the uneasy encounters between rival patrols, which sometimes included brief exchanges of fire, most commonly every January (anniversary of the signing of
16653-541: The agreed ceasefire, there were armed clashes in the Amazon area, with the Peruvian troops of the Jungle Division launching, between August 1 and 2, 1941, an offensive against the Ecuadorian garrisons located on the Yaupi and Santiago rivers. According to Second Lieutenant Hugo Ortiz Garcés [ es ] , who would be killed the next day, the Ecuadorian Yaupi outpost and its Gazipum garrison
16836-422: The area where the Ecuadorian base of Tiwinza – focal point of the war – had been located within Peruvian soil and which the Ecuadorian Army held during the conflict. The final border demarcation came into effect on 13 May 1999, and the multi-national MOMEP (Military Observer Mission for Ecuador and Peru) troop deployment withdrew on 17 June 1999. In 1972, a "revolutionary and nationalist" military junta overthrew
17019-511: The area. The other planes that made up Squadron 41 continued with their mission and carried out a subsequent attack, returning to Tumbes. On July 24, a battle between Peruvian and Ecuadorian troops took place in Chacras, where the latter set up a resistance against the Peruvians. Due to constant Peruvian attacks, the defensive position eventually gave way and the post was overrun. On July 23, Peruvian aircraft carried out strategic bombing of
17202-488: The arrival of the Spaniards, the Inca Empire was involved in a civil war . The untimely death of both the heir Ninan Cuyochi and the Emperor Huayna Capac, from a European disease that spread into Ecuador, created a power vacuum between two factions and led to a civil war. The army stationed north headed by Atahualpa marched south to Cuzco and massacred the royal family associated with his brother. In 1532,
17385-409: The battle, the civilian population was evacuated, with some volunteers remaining to assist the Ecuadorian Army. Fire was exchanged beginning at 2 p.m. Peruvian Commander César Yánez, head of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, supported by a company from the 19th Infantry Battalion and a battery from the 8th Artillery Group, crossed the river on July 28 and took Macará, encountering little opposition. Later, with
17568-587: The border between the two countries. The two nations had signed a border treaty following the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1941, but Ecuador later disagreed with the treaty as it applied to the Cenepa and Paquisha areas, and in 1960 it declared the treaty null and void. Most of the fighting took place around the headwaters of the Cenepa River . Mediation efforts of Argentina , Brazil , Chile and
17751-414: The case of armored vehicles, Ecuador practically lacked combat aircraft; at the beginning of hostilities, the Ecuadorian Air Force had only six Curtiss-Wright CW-19R Sparrow aircraft, and three IMAM Ro.37 reconnaissance and attack biplanes that were in poor condition. Peru carried out limited aerial bombing of the Ecuadorian towns of Huaquillas, Arenillas, Santa Rosa, and Machala. On July 31, prior to
17934-511: The cease fire that was to be effective on that date, the Peruvians were ordered to capture the city of Puerto Bolívar, which was accomplished using paratroopers from the newly formed Paratrooper Company of the Peruvian Air Force . The use of said paratroopers was decisive in the capture of the city and was a surprise, since only a handful of countries had paratrooper units, such as Germany with their Fallschirmjäger , making Peru
18117-547: The ceasefire, a civilian administration was established in the occupied province of El Oro by Peru. A month later, on October 2, the Talara Accord ( Spanish : Acuerdo de Talara ) was signed, through which a bilateral ceasefire was put into place. The treaty also established a demilitarized zone between both states, which would be under the Ecuadoran administration, and the observation of military representatives of
18300-528: The coast due to its shallow depth. After 21 minutes of fire, the incident ended. The Peruvian Air Force was more numerous and technologically more advanced than its Ecuadorian counterpart. The core of Peruvian aviation was made up of a squadron of five NA-50 fighters, known as Toritos , which were a version of the North American P-64 and had been delivered by the United States in May 1939. As in
18483-400: The commanders of the opposing battalions in the area. According to Ecuadorian accounts, during the meeting the Peruvian officer called to the attention of his Ecuadorian counterpart that the presence of Ecuadorian outposts in the headwaters of the Cenepa river constituted a violation of Peruvian territory, and that therefore the posts had to be abandoned and the troops moved back to the line of
18666-429: The conflict. This claim was promptly denied by Chile the following day on February 5, 1995, but admitted that they had sold weaponry to Ecuador on September 12, 1994, as part of a regular commercial exchange that had no aim against any particular nation. The source of this deal has been traced back to 1977, when the military regime of Augusto Pinochet signed an agreement with the Ecuadorian military authorities then ruling
18849-496: The controversy was once again ignited when General Víctor Manuel Bayas, former Chief of Staff of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces during the Cenepa War, made a series of declarations in regards to the armed conflict between Peru and Ecuador. On March 21, 2005, General Bayas was asked by the Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio if Chile had sold armaments to Ecuador during the Cenepa War, to which he replied: “ Yes, it
19032-416: The country (headed by Alfredo Poveda ) for the sale of armament by the state-run FAMAE factory. That contract was reportedly renewed around the reported time of the registered legal sale (September 1994), which led to the aforementioned shipment of military hardware to Ecuador. In 1995, and due to lack of further information, Peru's president, Alberto Fujimori , put a momentary end to the scandal. However,
19215-410: The country in recent years. The population has been motivated by government failures to deliver on promises of land reform, lower unemployment and provision of social services, and the historical exploitation by the land-holding elite. Their movement, along with the continuing destabilizing efforts by both the elite and leftist movements, has led to a deterioration of the executive office. The populace and
19398-508: The country in the 1860s with the support of the Roman Catholic Church. In the late 19th century, world demand for cocoa tied the economy to commodity exports and led to migrations from the highlands to the agricultural frontier on the coast. Ecuador abolished slavery in 1851. The descendants of enslaved Ecuadorians are among today's Afro-Ecuadorian population. The Liberal Revolution of 1895 under Eloy Alfaro reduced
19581-429: The coup d'état against Leguía by troops under the command of Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro , the treaty was made public and caused much anger among the Peruvian population, which perceived that the treaty awarded Colombia a section of Peruvian territory. This dispute over the Amazon region controlled by Leticia would eventually lead to a short war between Colombia and Peru from 1932 to 1933. The conflict over Leticia, which
19764-469: The deadlock, apparently unable to reach a compromise solution. It could be said that the Cenepa war had the same causes that caused the Peruvian victory in the false Paquisha of 1981 , that is, the Peruvian discovery of Ecuadorian outposts on the eastern slopes of the Condor mountain range by expelled Ecuadorian troops from the territory in dispute. And further down in the Cenepa Valley, followed by
19947-414: The decision to evict Ecuadorians from these places by force. The Ecuadorian Army, evidently bent on preventing any repetition of the "Pachacútec" incident, and to forestall any Peruvian attempt to reach to crests of the Condor range, had gone on to establish a "defensive" perimeter on the area of Cenepa valley, with two outposts, "Tiwinza" and "Base Sur", on the Cenepa headwaters (i.e. in the eastern side of
20130-675: The dense jungle and dislodge the Peruvians from the site, named by the Ecuadorians' "Base Norte". Significantly, the decision to act was made by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army before informing the President of the Republic, Sixto Durán-Ballén , and his National Security Council. The Ecuadorian high command had by then interpreted the opinion of the Commander in Chief of the Peruvian armed forces, General Nicolás de Bari Hermoza , to respond to calls from his Ecuadorian counterpart as
20313-565: The departure of the Ecuadorian Hercules planes (loaded only with ammunition) hours after they had left. Chile's response to the declarations made by General Bayas were made the following day on March 22, 2005. The government of Chile denied the claims and stated that the only registered sale of weapons to Ecuador was in 1994. Jaime Ravinet, the Chilean Minister of Defense , assured that any other armament transfer after
20496-619: The disbanding of the small terrorist group, " ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! " ("Alfaro Lives, Dammit!"), named after Eloy Alfaro . However, continuing economic problems undermined the popularity of the ID party, and opposition parties gained control of Congress in 1999. A notable event was the Cenepa War fought between Ecuador and Peru in 1995. Ecuador won its first Olympic medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta when Jefferson Pérez won gold in
20679-528: The dispute in an equitable manner and to submit the differing points of the dispute to the United States for arbitration. Negotiations between the Ecuadorian and Peruvian representatives began in Washington on 30 September 1935. The negotiations turned into arguments during the next 7 months and finally on 29 September 1937, the Peruvian representatives decided to break off the negotiations. In 1941, amid fast-growing tensions within disputed territories around
20862-495: The disputed territories, the Peruvian military intended to assault and capture the first port of Ecuador. Once Guayaquil was occupied, the Peruvian forces in the occupied part of the Ecuadorian highlands would leave from Loja, which is less than 600 km from the capital, and would occupy Quito, an operation that would take a maximum of 10 days, since the Ecuadorian armed forces had practically ceased to exist in September,. By
21045-488: The early part of the 20th century, Ecuador made an effort to peacefully define its eastern Amazonian borders with its neighbours through negotiation. On 6 May 1904, Ecuador signed the Tobar-Rio Branco Treaty recognizing Brazil's claims to the Amazon in recognition of Ecuador's claim to be an Amazonian country to counter Peru's earlier Treaty with Brazil back on 23 October 1851. Then after a few meetings with
21228-736: The east of the range. The Ecuadorian stance had a symbolic meaning of its own: the Cenepa river was a small tributary of the Marañón River , in turn a tributary of the Amazon River , to which Ecuador had always claimed the right for sovereign access. Just as in the Paquisha Incident of 1981, the Cenepa War was caused by the installation by Ecuador, since 1994, of border outposts on the Cenepa River basin in eastern Cordillera del Condor (territory also claimed by Peru), with
21411-447: The end of August 1941, Peru occupied the coast: the provinces and cantons of El Oro, Puerto Bolívar and began the blockade of Guayaquil, the main commercial port and naval base of Ecuador. In the mountains, the provinces and cantons of Loja and Zamora Chinchipe were occupied. In the jungle, the armed forces of Peru claimed Sucumbios, Napo and Pastaza in the regions that corresponded to the former Government of Quijos, which, according to
21594-423: The fighting of the Cenepa war was centered around the control of several outposts located on the headwaters of the Cenepa River (see map), a highland area covered with dense Amazonian jungle, inside a 78 km-long strip of territory where the process of demarcation between Ecuador and Peru remained stalled since 1951. One of the outposts causing the dispute, called Tiwintza by the Ecuadorians, and Tiwinza by
21777-526: The fire, with the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio blaming the retreating Ecuadorian troops with a report that claimed that locals had heard an Ecuadorian commander ordering that the area was burned to a crisp. The town was referred to as the " Lidice of America" by Italian writer Leonelly Castelly due to the scale of the destruction of the area being similar to that of the Czech town. The Peruvian administration immediately started efforts in order to exploit
21960-508: The first country in the Western Hemisphere to deploy paratroopers, followed by Argentina in 1944. The paratroopers were dropped from Italian Caproni Ca.111 bomber-transports. On August 31, 1941, and facing a delicate political and national security situation, President of Ecuador Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río decided to retain a considerable part of the Ecuadorian Army to protect the capital, Quito . This military order
22143-586: The first decades of the 19th century, when both countries came into being after the Wars of Independence of the Spanish colonies in South America. In modern times there were three previous military confrontations: war between 1857 and 1860 , a full-scale war in 1941 , the Paquisha War in 1981, both of which had seen the Peruvian military forces prevailing over the Ecuadorian military . Most of
22326-644: The government of Bogotá did not recognize the separation of Ecuador or that of Cauca from the Gran Colombia until war broke out in May 1832. In five months, New Granada defeated Ecuador due to the fact that the majority of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces were composed of rebellious angry unpaid veterans from Venezuela and Colombia that did not want to fight against their fellow countrymen. Seeing that his officers were rebelling, mutinying, and changing sides, President Flores had no option but to reluctantly make peace with New Granada. The Treaty of Pasto of 1832
22509-717: The government of Velasco Ibarra. The coup d'état was led by General Guillermo Rodríguez and executed by navy commander Jorge Queirolo G. The new president exiled José María Velasco to Argentina. He remained in power until 1976, when he was removed by another military government. That military junta was led by Admiral Alfredo Poveda , who was declared chairman of the Supreme Council. The Supreme Council included two other members: General Guillermo Durán Arcentales and General Luis Pintado. The civil society more and more insistently called for democratic elections. Colonel Richelieu Levoyer , Government Minister, proposed and implemented
22692-425: The government restored fuel subsidies and withdrew an austerity package, which ended nearly two weeks of protests. In the 11 April 2021 election , conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso took 52.4% of the vote, compared to 47.6% for left-wing economist Andrés Aráuz , who was supported by exiled former president Correa. Lasso had finished second in the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. On 24 May 2021, Lasso
22875-576: The government waived the right to tax increases in raw material prices and foreign exchange repatriations. In October 2018, Moreno cut diplomatic relations with the Maduro administration of Venezuela, a close ally of Correa. The relations with the United States improved significantly under Moreno. In June 2019, Ecuador agreed to allow US military planes to operate from an airport on the Galapagos Islands. In February 2020, his visit to Washington
23058-546: The heights of the Condor range. The aircraft and helicopter losses mentioned above represent the losses acknowledged by each side during the conflict due to enemy action or to accidents, as cited in the Air Combat Information Group Website . According to the same source, Peru may have lost up to three helicopters during the conflict, and Ecuador may have lost one attack helicopter in unclear circumstances. Faundes, citing Ecuadorian sources, puts
23241-410: The highland Andes mountains, where life was more sedentary, groups of tribes cooperated and formed villages; thus the first nations based on agricultural resources and the domestication of animals formed. Eventually, through wars and marriage alliances of their leaders , groups of nations formed confederations. When the Incas arrived, they found that these confederations were so developed that it took
23424-642: The illegal sale of armament by revealing the existence of three secret decrees signed by President Carlos Menem between the years of 1991 and 1995. The controversy regarding the decrees came about when the weapons sold did not go to Panama , Bolivia , and Venezuela as had been accorded, but instead the weapons ended up in Croatia and Ecuador at times when both of these nations were involved in wars and prohibited from receiving international military aid. The sale Argentina gave to Ecuador included 6.500 tons of rifles, cannons, anti-tank rockets , and ammunition. Menem
23607-506: The intention of using them as springboards to occupy the independent city of Guayaquil and then liberate the rest of the Audiencia de Quito (Ecuador). It was common knowledge among officers of the liberation army from the south that their leader San Martín wished to liberate present-day Ecuador and add it to the future republic of Peru, since it had been part of the Inca Empire before the Spaniards conquered it. However, Bolívar 's intention
23790-484: The labour code. Ecuador also left the left-wing Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (Alba) in August 2018. The Productive Development Act introduced an austerity policy, and reduced the previous development and redistribution policies. Regarding taxes, the authorities aimed to "encourage the return of investors" by granting amnesty to fraudsters and proposing measures to reduce tax rates for large companies . In addition,
23973-478: The location of "Pachacútec" since it was, according to Ecuador, inside Ecuadorian territory, and went on to set up an outpost of its own ("Etza") right in front of it. For Peru, there was no question that both "Pachacútec" and "Etza" were inside Peruvian territory. Although the crisis was defused the following month with the signing of a Pacto de Caballeros (gentlemen's agreement), by which both sides committed themselves to abandon these posts and separate their forces,
24156-421: The longest territorial disputes in the Western Hemisphere . Official estimates give a death toll of 94. Demining is expected to be completed in 2024. As of 2024, it is the most recent military conflict in the Americas between countries contesting sovereignty over territory. The Cenepa War was the most recent military clash between Ecuador and Peru over a long-standing territorial dispute that dated back to
24339-478: The mediator countries that also signed the agreement: the United States , Brazil and Argentina . Other countries involved in the mediation included the Vatican , which had acted both directly between both countries and in conjunction with the other mediators, and to a lesser extent, Chile and Mexico . The topic of Pan-Americanism was brought up, with countries such as Ecuador proclaiming their allegiance to
24522-493: The mission of entering Ecuadorian waters and carrying out patrol and reconnaissance tasks in the area. The Ecuadorian gunboat Abdón Calderón was spotted in the vicinity of the Jambelí channel. The Ecuadorian ship, which was in transit to Guayaquil , turned 180° as soon as it recognized the Peruvian ship, fleeing towards Puerto Bolívar while firing. Admiral Villar did the same, maneuvering in circles avoiding getting too close to
24705-588: The missionary villages in the Mainas or Maynas region, which it began calling Loreto, with its capital in Iquitos . During its negotiations with Brazil, Peru claimed Amazonian Basin territories up to Caqueta River in the north and toward the Andes Mountain range. Colombia protested stating that its claims extended south toward the Napo and Amazon Rivers. Ecuador protested that it claimed the Amazon Basin between
24888-694: The movement, and other countries, such as Vichy France criticizing it, arguing that it only served to increase American influence in the continent. By the time the ceasefire had been accepted, the cities bombarded by Peru included Santa Rosa , Machala and Puerto Bolívar . Peruvian aircraft had reached Guayaquil in at least two different occasions, but the squadron sent to the city limited itself to dropping propaganda leaflets, which were republished by Peruvian newspapers La Industria and El Tiempo . A fire began in Santa Rosa on 1 August 1941, which destroyed over 120 houses. Both sides blamed each other for
25071-477: The names of Cueva de los Tayos, Base Sur and Tiwinza. Tensions along the Condor range had been running high following a crisis that arose in July 1991 over the location of a Peruvian outpost called "Pachacútec" (Pachacútec Incident) inside a zone that, while 60 km north of the delimited and undemarcated area, had its own problems regarding the location of a single border marker (see map). Ecuador had protested over
25254-418: The nearby Ecuadorian Huasimo outpost, Peruvian and Ecuadorian troops also fought; the Ecuadorians had to retreat, leaving behind weapons and equipment. On July 25, in the Chacras sector, strong Peruvian contingents preceded by a tank surrounded a group of 25 soldiers commanded by Ecuadorian Lieutenant César Edmundo Chiriboga González , who refused to surrender and fought to the death, along with his troops. In
25437-436: The need for a resolution of a problem. Thus, in the aftermath of the war, both nations, brokered by the "guarantors" of the Rio Protocol, entered into a long and difficult negotiation process that concluded with the signing of a Peace Treaty in 1998, and the closing of the hitherto un-demarcated stretch of common border, deep in the Amazonian rainforest. Following the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1941, both countries had signed
25620-501: The newly acquired territories in southern Ecuador. A civil administration was established in order to provide a sense of normalcy to the Ecuadorian citizens that lived under occupation, which relieved the military from certain efforts. A large effort from the Northern Army Detachment during this period also went into repairing and maintaining infrastructure, such as highways and railroads, which would in turn be used to
25803-541: The newly discovered Real Cedula of 1802, by which Peru claims the King of Spain had transferred these lands from the Viceroyalty of New Granada to the Viceroyalty of Peru. During colonial times this was to halt the ever-expanding Portuguese settlements into Spanish domains, which were left vacant and in disorder after the expulsion of Jesuit missionaries from their bases along the Amazon Basin. Ecuador countered by labeling
25986-541: The newly formed Northern Army Detachment , headed by General Eloy G. Ureta with the purpose of pushing north into El Oro Province with the stated purpose of preventing more skirmishes along the disputed border. On that day, the 41st Peruvian Squadron took off from Tumbes to fulfill a mission, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Antonio Alberti and made up of Lieutenants Fernando Paraud, José A. Quiñones and Manuel Rivera, aboard their North American NA-50 or Toritos fighter planes. The mission consisted of bombing
26169-558: The other branches of government give the president very little political capital, as illustrated by the most recent removal of President Lucio Gutiérrez from office by Congress in April 2005. Vice President Alfredo Palacio took his place In the election of 2006 , Rafael Correa gained the presidency. In January 2007, several left-wing political leaders of Latin America, his future allies, attended his swearing-in ceremony. Endorsed in
26352-589: The people of the highland Andes developed a sedentary agricultural way of life; and peoples of the Amazon basin relied on hunting and gathering; in some cases, this is combined with agriculture and arboriculture . Many civilizations arose in Ecuador, such as the Valdivia Culture and Machalilla Culture on the coast, the Quitus (near present-day Quito), and the Cañari (near present-day Cuenca ). In
26535-451: The place where he and his men died, the Peruvians put together a cross with a plaque that read, "Lieutenant César E. Chiriboga González and 25 soldiers, fallen on July 25, 1941, in the line of duty." The cross was found in the aftermath of the war, after Peruvian troops had retreated from southern Ecuador. Due to his actions, Chiriboga was posthumously promoted to captain and declared a national hero of Ecuador. Peruvian victory: Despite
26718-479: The port city. On the next day, aircraft returned to attack the Aviso Atahualpa patrol boat, located at the docks of the city. The fact that the patrol boat was the target as well as the subsequent defense of it carried out by Ecuadorian troops prevented valuable explosives located nearby from being attacked and ignited. On July 28, Peruvian submarines BAP Islay (R-1) and BAP Casma (R-2) carried out
26901-433: The power of the clergy and the conservative land owners. This liberal wing retained power until the military "Julian Revolution" of 1925. The 1930s and 1940s were marked by instability and emergence of populist politicians, such as five-time President José María Velasco Ibarra . Brasilia Presidential Act After Ecuador's separation from Colombia on 13 May 1830, its first President, General Juan José Flores , laid claim to
27084-417: The revolution of Trujillo by the Peruvian occupying force, had the whole region swear allegiance to the new Peruvian flag and incorporated itself into Peru. Gran Colombia had always protested Peru for the return of Jaén and Tumbes for almost a decade, then finally Bolivar after long and futile discussion over the return of Jaén, Tumbes, and part of Mainas, declared war. President and General José de La Mar , who
27267-533: The same year. Ecuador and Peru went on to negotiate the final demarcation of the border, in a lengthy process marked by one crisis after another, with a total war almost erupting in August 1998. Finally, on October 26, 1998, in Brasília , Jamil Mahuad , President of Ecuador, and Alberto Fujimori , President of Peru, along with the Presidents of Brazil , Argentina , and Chile ; and a personal representative of
27450-607: The signing of the Treaty of Guayaquil in September 1829, whereby Peru and its Congress recognized Gran Colombian rights over Tumbes, Jaén, and Maynas. Through meetings between Peru and Gran Colombia, the border was set as Tumbes river in the west, and in the east, the Maranon and Amazon rivers were to be followed toward Brazil as the most natural borders between them. According to the peace negotiations Peru agreed to return Guayaquil, Tumbez, and Jaén; despite this, Peru returned Guayaquil, but failed to return Tumbes and Jaén, alleging that it
27633-459: The situation and that they were taking all the dispositions of the case to reform the military sales law ". Reportedly, Pinochet himself later assumed direct responsibility for the shipment before the civilian authorities of his country (even if his lawyer denied it in 2005), as he still exercised considerable influence over state institutions and controlled the security apparatus, thus having power to bypass civilian controls to foreign arms sales. It
27816-483: The support of the company commanded by Captain Fernando del Risco, the Ecuadorian Army remnants in nearby Vado Limón were also defeated. The town was subsequently occupied by Peruvian forces, looted, and vacated two days later, when the Peruvian troops returned to their emplacements. On July 29, the Ecuadorian border outposts of Cazaderos and Progreso were attacked by Peruvian troops, but the attacks were repelled. At
27999-456: The territory as an integral part of its republic. Further adding to Ecuador's problems, the Colombian government now also recognized Peru's territorial aspirations as legitimate, and had nominally granted to Peru an area in Sucumbíos which had been claimed by Ecuador. An agreement was signed in 1936 which recognized territories in de facto possession by each country. The resulting border
28182-570: The territory that had belonged to the Real Audiencia of Quito , also referred to as the Presidencia of Quito. He supported his claims with Spanish Royal decrees, or real cedulas , that delineated the borders of Spain's former overseas colonies. In the case of Ecuador, Flores based Ecuador's de jure claims on the Real Cedulas of 1563, 1739, and 1740; with modifications in the Amazon Basin and Andes Mountains that were introduced through
28365-713: The testimony of Col. Luis Rodríguez, the Ecuadorian forces at the disposal of the Army Border Command in El Oro (Lieutenant Colonel Octavio A. Ochoa) after the incidents of 5 and 6 July were as follows: As a result of the rising tensions on the border during 1939 and 1940, the Peruvian President Manuel Prado authorised in December 1940 the creation of the Agrupamiento del Norte (Northern Army Detachment). By July 1941, this unit
28548-472: The third week of January, both Peru and Ecuador had managed to deploy around 5,000 troops to the immediate vicinity of the delimited and undemarcated area. With the coming of the new year, crisis loomed in the Cenepa valley. By 8 January the Peruvian Army had deployed four patrols near Base Sur. On the night of 9 January 1995, Ecuadorian troops found and captured four Peruvian soldiers that according to
28731-421: The threat to the Ecuadorian state, with Ecuadorian President Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río keeping a sizable part of the Army in Quito , Ecuador promptly requested a ceasefire, which went into effect on 31 July 1941. The Peruvian occupation of Ecuador was formally established after the ceasefire of July 31, 1941, having existed since the Peruvian occupation began with the Zarumilla offensive on July 23. After
28914-412: The total of Peruvian losses at four fixed-wing aircraft and three helicopters. Both sources agree that Ecuador lost one AT-33A trainer in an accident outside the combat area, three fallen A-37 and two defective Kfir cannot return to the theater of operations in the conflict. During the war, a series of Peruvian newspapers brought forth information claiming that Chile had sold armament to Ecuador during
29097-400: The view that the border in the area ran along the heights of the Condor range, Ecuador insisted that there was no technical basis for considering that mountain range as the border between the two nations, hinting at the idea that the spirit of the Protocol, which had never mentioned the Cóndor range by name, would require the location of the border markers along the Cenepa River, immediately to
29280-435: The walls of Quito referring to Peru as the " Cain de Latinoamérica ", a reference to the murder of Abel by his brother Cain in the Book of Genesis . Ecuador and Peru signed the Brasilia Presidential Act peace agreement on 26 October 1998, which ended hostilities, and effectively put an end to the Western Hemisphere's longest running territorial dispute. The Guarantors of the Rio Protocol (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and
29463-413: The war. Moreover, the Peruvian government revealed that it held knowledge that during the war at least a couple of Ecuadorian C-130 transport airplanes had landed in Chilean territory to pick up 9mm ammunition, and that the Ecuadorian Air Force had planned three more of those armament acquisition voyages to Chile. Nonetheless, the Peruvian government at that time regarded this as a minor incident due to
29646-426: The west. It also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers (621 mi) west of the mainland. The country's capital is Quito and its largest city is Guayaquil . The territories of modern-day Ecuador were once home to a variety of indigenous peoples that were gradually incorporated into the Inca Empire during the 15th century. The territory was colonized by Spanish Empire during
29829-442: The world to become listed sites. The Rio Protocol failed to precisely resolve the border along a little river in the remote Cordillera del Cóndor region in southern Ecuador. This caused a long-simmering dispute between Ecuador and Peru, which ultimately led to fighting between the two countries; first a border skirmish in January–February 1981 known as the Paquisha Incident , and ultimately full-scale warfare in January 1995 where
30012-399: Was a contract with the militaries during the conflict. " Furthermore, General Bayas revealed that Argentina and Russia had also sold weaponry to Ecuador during the conflict. Later that same year, on April 11, Colonel Ernesto Checa, Ecuador's military representative in Chile during the Cenepa War, stated that Chile provided Ecuador with " ammunition, rifles and night vision devices " during
30195-432: Was attacked from July 31 to August 1, 1941, by no less than 100 soldiers from the Peruvian Army, armed with eight machine guns. On August 2, 1941, in Gapizum, on the banks of the Santiago River, the Ecuadorian post of ten soldiers, commanded by 20-year-old Second Lieutenant Hugo Ortiz Garcés [ es ] , was again attacked and, unlike the previous day , overrun by Peruvian forces. Ortiz refused to surrender and
30378-461: Was born in Ecuador, believing his opportunity had come to annex the District of Ecuador to Peru, personally, with a Peruvian force, invaded and occupied Guayaquil and a few cities in the Loja region of southern Ecuador on 28 November 1828. The war ended when an outnumbered southern Gran Colombian army at Battle of Tarqui on 27 February 1829, led by Antonio José de Sucre , defeated the Peruvian invasion force led by President La Mar. This defeat led to
30561-446: Was given due to intelligence reports coming from the intelligence services of Brazil , Chile , and the United States, informing President Arroyo del Río and the Ecuadorian military high command that Peru was less than 48 hours from Guayaquil, leaving from Machala and Puerto Bolívar, the second port of Ecuador. The Peruvian troops were less than 170 km from the Guayaquil metropolitan area. If Ecuador did not accept Peru's rights over
30744-410: Was killed in action by the Peruvian soldiers, who buried him wrapped in the flag of the small Ecuadorian detachment in charge of guarding the Yaupi area. His remains were moved to Quito in 1943. The reinforcements requested by Ortiz Garcés arrived and began to approach the Yaupi River only a week later. The unit, commanded by Corporal Salvador León Veloz and made up of eight soldiers, began to approach
30927-411: Was not obligated to follow the agreements, since the Gran Colombia ceased to exist when it divided itself into three different nations – Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. The Central District of the Gran Colombia, known as Cundinamarca or New Granada (modern Colombia) with its capital in Bogota, did not recognize the separation of the Southern District of the Gran Colombia, with its capital in Quito, from
31110-429: Was populated by both Peruvian and Colombian colonists, was resolved after Sanchez Cerro was assassinated and the new Peruvian president Óscar R. Benavides accepted the 1934 Rio Protocol which upheld the Salomón–Lozano Treaty and finally put an end to the border disputes between Colombia and Peru. The Salomón–Lozano Treaty was unpopular in Ecuador as well, which found itself surrounded on the east by Peru, which claimed
31293-430: Was ready to begin active military operations. Order of Battle, Agrupamiento del Norte , July 1941 Figures for total strength of the Agrupamiento del Norte at the beginning of offensive operations have been put at 11,500 to 13,000 men. The first shots of the conflict were fired on July 5, 1941, with both parties disagreeing about who fired the first shot. According to Ecuadorian Colonel Luis A. Rodríguez, commander of
31476-421: Was ruled by Augusto B. Leguía . The treaty, which was kept secret, set the boundary between Peru and Colombia as the Putumayo River , with the exception of a small strip of land controlled by the city of Leticia that would connect Colombia to the main flow of the Amazon River . With that, Colombia effectively recognized Peruvian control of the rest of the disputed region south of the Putumayo River. Following
31659-414: Was sentenced to seven years in prison for arms-smuggling. Several explanations have been brought forward to explain the outcome of the Cenepa conflict. Some of these can be briefly summarized here: Ecuador Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador , is a country in northwestern South America , bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on
31842-427: Was signed by which the Department of Cauca was turned over to New Granada (modern Colombia), the government of Bogotá recognized Ecuador as an independent country and the border was to follow the Ley de División Territorial de la República de Colombia (Law of the Division of Territory of the Gran Colombia) passed on 25 June 1824. This law set the border at the river Carchi and the eastern border that stretched to Brazil at
32025-450: Was studied by Alexander von Humboldt , when he visited the area in 1801–1802. After nearly 300 years of Spanish rule, Quito still remained small with a population of 10,000 people. On 10 August 1809, the city's criollos called for independence from Spain (first among the peoples of Latin America). They were led by Juan Pío Montúfar, Quiroga, Salinas, and Bishop Cuero y Caicedo. Quito's nickname, " Luz de América " ("Light of America"),
32208-563: Was supported by either the Allies or the Axis . A ceasefire agreement between the two countries came into effect on 31 July 1941. Both countries signed the Rio Protocol on 29 January 1942, and Peruvian forces subsequently withdrew. The enmity over the territorial dispute continued after 1942 and concluded following the Cenepa War of 1995 and the signing of the Brasilia Presidential Act agreement in October 1998. Brasilia Presidential Act The territorial dispute between Ecuador and Peru dated from before Ecuador's independence, as part of
32391-503: Was sworn in, becoming the country's first right-wing leader in 14 years. Lasso's party CREO Movement, and its ally the Social Christian Party (PSC) won only 31 parliamentary seats out of 137, while Aráuz's Union for Hope (UNES) won 49 seats, which meant Lasso needed support from the Izquierda Democrática and the indigenist Pachakutik parties to push through his legislative agenda. Ecuadorian%E2%80%93Peruvian War Peruvian victory The Ecuadorian–Peruvian War , known locally as
32574-481: Was taken to avoid a similar outcome if and when the threat of war became a reality. For the Peruvian military, the mobilization process was somewhat more problematic. The Cenepa valley area was devoid of any major roads, population centers, or helicopter bases on the Peruvian side. The Peruvian Army and the Peruvian Air Force (FAP), had to organize an air-bridge to get reinforcements to the zone. Troops, heavy weapons, ammunition and supplies had to be flown in first from
32757-552: Was taken to court for his alleged association with these illegal acts in 2001, but was acquitted by Argentina's Supreme Court. In October 2008 the case was re-opened, but Menem avoided being detained by Argentine authorities until 2010 due to his position as senator of La Rioja . Menem claimed to have had no association with the illegal weapons trade, and further adds that this is a political persecution made by Argentine president Cristina Fernández and, her husband and also former Argentine president, Néstor Kirchner . In 2013 Carlos Menem
32940-408: Was the first meeting between an Ecuadorian and U.S. president in 17 years. A series of protests began on 3 October 2019 against the end of fuel subsidies and austerity measures adopted by Moreno. On 10 October, protesters overran Quito, the capital, causing the Government of Ecuador to relocate temporarily to Guayaquil . The government eventually returned to Quito in 2019. On 14 October 2019,
33123-483: Was the responsibility of the Peruvian 8th Light Division, under the command of Colonel EP César A. Salazar Cartagena. Peruvian victory According to Peruvian accounts, Macará had a large number of Peruvians, who saw themselves targeted by the Ecuadorian population. On July 25, news reached Peru that the Peruvian Consulate had been stoned and the Peruvian coat of arms dragged away. The Peruvian military authorities of La Tina protested and asked for an explanation, sending
33306-427: Was to form a new republic known as the Gran Colombia , out of the liberated Spanish territory of New Granada which consisted of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. San Martín's plans were thwarted when Bolívar, descended from the Andes mountains and occupied Guayaquil; they also annexed the newly liberated Audiencia de Quito to the Republic of Gran Colombia. In the south, Ecuador had claims to a small piece of land beside
33489-564: Was undergoing major changes, with the social reforms begun by president Augusto B. Leguia (which, he claimed, were aimed at improving roads, sanitation, industrial development, and promoting the general welfare of Peru's indigenous population) being continued by president General Oscar Benavides . Economically, Peru claimed to be attempting to run on a balanced budget, but Peru still held a large debt in spite of its positive foreign trade. However, despite these claims, Peru also began to mobilize its troops to its border with Ecuador in order to match
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