Peruvian-Ecuadorian War
The military conflicts in the border areas of the South American states of Peru and Ecuador in July 1941 are known as the Peruvian-Ecuadorian War .
background
There have been several border conflicts between Peru and Ecuador. The reason for this was the non-recognition of a decree by the Spanish King Charles IV of 1802 by the independent states of Greater Colombia and Ecuador when defining their border with Peru in 1829/30. The decree had reassigned the Amazonian province of Maynas (approximately today's Loreto region , Peru) , which had belonged to the Real Audiencia de Quito (Ecuador) of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Greater Colombia) since 1739, to the Viceroyalty of Peru , since it was from Bogotá or Quitono direct exercise of power over the area was possible. With regard to these areas in the Amazon lowlands, which made up about two-thirds of the nominal territory of Ecuador, there was no agreement on the demarcation throughout the course of the 19th century. Ecuador claimed that the Amazon had been discovered from Quito in the Gonzalo Pizarro expedition and insisted on autonomous access to this river. Agreements were repeatedly drawn up, but each side either did not ratify them or soon revoked them. In the protocol of Castro Oyanguren-Ponce (1924), which was specified in the Lima file (1936), both countries agreed on one of the controlled areas and minimum demands of both countries as a result of border skirmishes in the years 1903 to 1905 and various foreign mediation attempts existing status quo, which was primarily based on natural boundaries such as rivers and mountain ranges. In this, the areas subordinated to the Viceroyalty of Peru in the decree of 1802, which Ecuador had not effectively controlled, were largely left with Peru.
Two key points of the status quo were the Zarumilla River on the Pacific coast to the west, and the sub-Andean Cordillera del Cóndor and the Cenepa River in the Amazon to the east.
The demarcation at Zarumilla caused problems again and again because the course of the river changed. Conflicts repeatedly erupted on the Cordillera del Cóndor, since the demarcation of the boundaries did not clearly take into account the structure of the mountain folds, giving rise to different interpretations of the course of the boundary.
Since the status quo of 1936 reduced the nominal national territory of Ecuador by two-thirds and the required access to the Amazon was dropped, Ecuador in particular was dissatisfied with the course of the border. In 1941 the conflict finally developed into a border war. After the start of the Second World War , Peru upgraded its army with US weapons, arguing that it wanted to protect its own sovereignty more effectively. However, Ecuador saw this as a hostile act. The governments of Brazil , Argentina and the United States tried to mediate but failed.
course
On July 5, 1941 there were acts of war on the Río Zarumilla. It is unclear who triggered the shooting. Both sides considered themselves to be on their respective territories and saw the other as an aggressor. The Peruvians gained ground as a result of the more modern army and conquered the Ecuadorian province of El Oro . During a Peruvian Air Force attack on Ecuadorian troops at Quebrada Seca (about 35 km southeast of Machala ) on July 23, 1941, Peruvian war hero and pilot José Abelardo Quiñones Gonzales was killed. On July 31, however, the mediating powers of Brazil, Argentina and the USA stepped in and forced both countries to withdraw their armed forces 15 km from the disputed border. The mediating powers had reason to hurry, for although only a few thousand soldiers were involved in the border war, both Peru and Ecuador had already ordered general mobilization . Nevertheless, local attacks, counterattacks and exchanges of fire continued in the first half of August.
A ceasefire was signed in the Ecuadorian port of Talara on October 2 . The conflict was finally ended at a conference of the American states from January 15 to 28, 1942 in Rio de Janeiro ( Protocol of Rio de Janeiro ). The disputed territory was awarded to Peru. By February 12, 1942, Peruvian troops withdrew from the occupied Ecuadorian lands.
See also
literature
in order of appearance
- Ernesto Yepes del Castillo: Three days of war, ciento ochenta de negociaciones . Peru, Ecuador 1941–1942. Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima 1998.
- Eduardo Toche, Walter Ledesma, Pierre Foy: Peru – Ecuador. Entre la guerra y la paz . Centro de Estudios y Promoción del Desarrollo (DESCO), Lima 1998, ISBN 84-89312-28-1 .
- Hernán Ibarra, María Elena Porras, Carlos Contreras, Daniel Granda Arciniega: La Warra de 1941 between Ecuador and Perú. Una reintepretación . Centro de Ayuda Académica Profesional (CAAP), Quito 1999, ISBN 9978-51-006-0 .
web links
footnotes
- ↑ Biographical note on Lieutenant César Augusto López Rojas, killed August 12, 1941 , retrieved September 28, 2019.
- ^ Félix Denegri Luna: Perú y Ecuador. Apuntes para la historia de una frontera . Bolsa de Valores de Lima, Lima 1996, p. 287.