Ecuadorian-Peruvian war
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Peruvian Monument in honor of those who fought in the War
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| Military history of Peru
Military history of Ecuador
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| Conflict | War of 1941
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| Date | 1941-1942
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| Place | Tumbes and Amazonas, Peru
El Oro and Guayas, Ecuador
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| Result | Peruvian victory
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The Ecuadorian-Peruvian war, fought between July 5 and July 31, 1941, was one of three military conflicts that ocurred between these two Latin American nations during the 20th century—the two others being the Paquisha incident (also known as Falso Paquisha war in Peru), in 1981, and the Cenepa War(also know as Alto-Cenepa war in Peru), in 1995.
All three armed conflicts are part of a long history of military and diplomatic confrontations between Ecuador and Peru over a badly demarcated common border.
History of the conflict
- Main article: History of the Ecuadorian-Peruvian territorial dispute
After gaining independence from Spanish rule, Ecuador had been left without access to either the Amazon or the Marañón rivers, and thus had no access to the Atlantic Ocean.
It was not the first time that Peru fought several skirmishes (or wars) with Ecuador. The first, in which Peru prevailed, was during the years of 1859-1860 over the disputed territory bordering the Amazon. Peruvian President Ramón Castilla, concerned about the delicate situation, led a military expedition in order to secure and defend the boundaries. However, Ecuador entered a period of civil war that made the efforts of Castilla useless. Unable to negotiate with a recognised government, Castilla failed to extract a definitive agreement from Ecuador that might have conclusively settled the border issue, so it continued to fester throughout the next century.
In 1887, by mutual agreement of both governments (reached in the Espinoza-Bonifaz Treaty), it was stablished that the King of Spain would act as an arbitrator. The Herrera-García Treaty was drafted in 1890, and was speculated that it could solve the dispute once and for all. However, at the last minute the Peruvian Parliament refuse to ratify it, and negotiations once again reached a dead point. By 1910, both countries rejected the advice of the King of Spain, and each one returned to claim all the territories.
Another dispute was created after the signing of the Treaty of Salomón-Lozano (in March 1922), which favored Colombia at expense of both Peru and Ecuador. The Putumayo River was established as the boundary between Colombia and Peru. Pressured by the United States to accept the unpopular treaty, President Augusto B. Leguía y Salcedo finally submitted the document to the Peruvian Parliament in December, 1927. The treaty was unpopular with Ecuador, which found itself surrounded on the east by Peru (claiming the territory as integral part of its Republic). The Peruvian claim was recognised as valid by the Colombian authorities.
When Manuel Prado y Ugarteche won the Peruvian presidency in 1939 he was soon confronted with a border conflict with Ecuador.
War
After a series of sporadic border incidents, Peru launched an invasion on Ecuadorian territory (see references, Marcella G.), advancing on that nation's coastal province of El Oro, and securing also a large part of the disputed border area on the Amazon basin.
The Peruvian Armed Forces had established a paratroop unit in the region and used it to good effect seizing the Ecuadorian port city of Puerto Bolívar, on July 27, 1941, in what was actually the first time that airborne troops went into combat in the Western Hemisphere.
Faced with a delicate political situation that even prompted Ecuadorian President Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río to keep a sizeable part of the Army in the capital, Quito, and with no troops with which to preempt any Peruvian advance on the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador promptly requested a cease-fire, that went into effect on July 31, 1941.
By then, the Peruvian Army had secured the Ecuadorian province of El Oro and much of the eastern jungle territory under dispute. Ecuador was forced to sign the Protocolo de Río de Janeiro Rio Protocol on January 29, 1942, after the insistence of Peru, which would not return the province of El Oro until a definitive peace treaty had been signed.
Aftermath
By 1960, Ecuadorian President José María Velasco Ibarra declared that the Rio Protocol was nul and invalid. According to the Velasco Ibarra Administration, the treaty had been signed under military occupation, and the presence of geographical obstacles have made it impossible to enforce.
However, this proclamation made little international impact (the treaty was still held as valid by Peru and four more countries), since it was used by President Velasco Ibarra in order to gather political support with a nationalistic and populist rhetoric. Another war would be necessary to settle the dispute.
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