JCC: Now That Crossed The Line: Cenepa War, Perú vs. Ecuador, 1995
Despite a treaty adopted over fifty years ago, the border dispute between Ecuador and Peru is far from resolved. Just three years after being signed, Ecuador leveraged a minor geographical discrepancy in the Cenepa Drainage Basin to nullify the Rio Protocol and has since stationed military well into what each country considers their own land. Even after a failed incursion in 1981, Ecuador has once again built military outposts in the eastern side of the Cordillera del Condor that necessitates a Peruvian response. Numerous “friendly” warnings have been given to Ecuadorian forces to no avail, and a full military confrontation seems inevitable. For Peru, confrontation appears necessary to evict foreign troops from the demilitarized zone and formally demarcate the last seventy-eight miles of ill-defined border. Ecuador’s focus is to portray Peru as an aggressor and encourage countries to ignore the Rio Protocol in its entirety. To the civilians in each country, the outcome is a matter of pride; to the guarantors of the Protocol (US, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile), this conflict could define the relative stability of Latin America as a whole.
The Dais
Jackson DeMarco
Crisis Director
