RIO DE JANEIRO PROTOCOL (1942): CAUSES, OBJECTIVES - HISTORY - 2024

The Protocol of Rio de Janeiro, whose official name was Protocol of Peace, Friendship and Limits of Rio de Janeiro, was an agreement signed between Ecuador and Peru to put an end to their territorial disputes.

The treaty was signed in the city that gives it its name on January 29, 1942. In addition to the two countries in conflict, other nations that acted as mediators and witnesses also stamped their signature.

Ecuador's land claims - Source: Haylli under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

The origin of the territorial tensions between Peru and Ecuador went back to the creation of Gran Colombia, just after the wars of independence. The new countries that emerged from the Spanish colonies agreed to respect both the borders existing in 1810 and the right to self-determination of the peoples.

Despite this provision, some areas remained in dispute. In the case of Peru and Ecuador, it was the Amazon area. Despite the signing of several treaties that tried to settle the issue, the wars between the two countries were repeated during the following decades.

The Rio Protocol did not mean the end of the conflict either. This was not resolved until 1998, with the signing of the Act of Brasilia.

Background

It was Simón Bolívar, then the top leader of Gran Colombia, who began to claim part of their territories from Peru. Specifically, "the Liberator" requested the incorporation into his country of the provinces of Jaén, Maynas and Tumbes.

This claim did not disappear when Gran Colombia was dissolved. One of the states that emerged, Ecuador, tried to concentrate all the lands that had been part of the Quito Court, in addition to Guayaquil.

The Ecuadorian government proposed to negotiate with Peru to delimit its borders, especially those located in the Amazon area. The first result was the signing of the Pando-Novoa Treaty, in July 1832, with which the existing territorial limits were declared official.

However, in 1841 Ecuador began to demand the provinces of Maynas and Jaén from Peru, taking advantage of the war that this second country had with Bolivia.

War of 1858

The first serious conflict, although not armed, between the two countries occurred in 1858. The previous year, Ecuador tried to pay its foreign debt to England by handing over the Peruvian provinces of the Amazon that it claimed.

Peru reacted by filing a formal complaint and eventually the two countries broke off their relations. In October 1858, the Peruvian Congress gave the government permission to use the weapons in case Ecuador did not rectify.

The President of Peru, Ramón Castilla, ordered to blockade the Ecuadorian coast. A year later, in December 1859, the two countries agreed to ease the tension.

In January 1860, Peru and Ecuador signed the Treaties of Mapsingue. Through this agreement, Ecuador annulled the cession of territories that it had promised to its creditors and accepted the borders of the former viceroyalties of Peru and Santa Fé de Bogotá. However, the Treaty was unknown to the two countries in the following years.

Early 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, the tension on the border between Ecuador and Peru intensified. In 1903, there were some armed confrontations in Angoteros. According to the government of Peru, an Ecuadorian patrol tried to penetrate its territory and was rejected by its troops.

As they had already done at the end of the previous century, the two countries resorted to arbitration by the King of Spain to solve the incident, without achieving results.

The moment of greatest tension occurred seven years later, in 1910. Ecuador denied the authority to the Spanish Crown to issue an arbitration award, since a leak had shown that it would be contrary to its interests. In early April, Peruvian consulates in Quito and Guayaquil came under attack, prompting an equivalent response in Lima.

Eloy Alfaro, the Ecuadorian president, put his troops on alert. Leguía, Peruvian president, did the same. At the last minute, the mediation of the United States, Brazil, and Argentina prevented war from breaking out. Spain, for its part, desisted from presenting its report.

After another tense moment in 1922, Peruvians tried to go to the Hague Tribunal to resolve the conflict for good. Ecuador refused to go that way.

Washington Conferences

The capital of the United States was the venue for a series of meetings held in 1936. On this occasion, Ecuador and Peru agreed to maintain a "line of status quo" that would serve as a provisional border recognized by both.

New meetings in Washington did not serve to advance the negotiations and end the dispute.

Causes

The boundaries between Ecuador and Peru had been the subject of dispute from the moment of their independence. Since Gran Colombia disappeared, situations of tension had been reproduced every few years.

Ecuador's position

Ecuador affirmed that the certificate of creation of the Royal Audience of Quito, issued in 1563, gave it the reason in its claims. In addition, he referred to the uti possidetis of 1810, the Treaty of Guayaquil of 1829 and the Pedemonte-Mosquera Protocol as other sources of law that confirmed his claims.

Peru's position

For its part, Peru claimed that the Royal Decree of 1802 supported its position. On the other hand, she gave uti possidetis a totally different interpretation from Ecuador.

Apart from these sources, the country felt supported by the right of self-determination of the peoples, since the disputed provinces swore their declaration of independence.

Immediate cause

The signing of the Protocol of Rio de Janeiro was caused by the war between Peru and Ecuador that began in 1941. An incident on the border triggered the confrontation between both countries.

The versions about the beginning of the conflict vary depending on the country, but it ended up making international mediation necessary to reach a peace agreement.

Events

As has been pointed out, both parties maintain different versions of the cause that originated the war. The fighting began on July 5, 1941.

Ecuador accused the Peruvians of taking advantage of some isolated incidents between border patrols to plan an invasion. For its part, Peru claimed that the Ecuadorians had tried to invade Zarumilla.

At the beginning of the conflict, the Peruvians showed a greater war capacity. His troops on the border had been much better equipped and even had tanks.

Air war

On July 6, just 24 hours after the war started, Peru sent its planes to attack various targets on the border.

Part of the advantage that the Peruvians gained during those early days of conflict was due to the fact that they had an airborne unit. Thanks to her, his armed forces were able to reach and control Puerto Bolívar by the end of the month.

Ecuador reaction

Ecuador, faced with the attacks, decided to reinforce the defenses of its capital, but without attempting any counterattack. Very soon he asked for a ceasefire to be declared.

Guayaquil blockade

The situation had hardly changed by the end of August. Ecuadorian forces continued to be focused on defending Quito. The president of Ecuador, who was going through internal problems, had received information from several countries about the Peruvian advance towards Guayaquil.

The Peruvian government's strategy was to give Ecuador the opportunity to recognize its rights over the disputed provinces. If they didn't, they threatened to take Guayaquil and then head for Quito.

The first movement of the Peruvians was to block the port of Guayaquil, the most important in Ecuador. On the other hand, his troops had already occupied other coastal towns, in addition to Loja and Zamora Chinchipe.

The Peruvian superiority allowed him to make other requests. Among them, they demanded several territories that Ecuador had taken while Peru was at war with Chile, in 1879.

Signature of the agreement

The clear outcome of the war, plus the mediating efforts of Argentina, Chile, the United States and Brazil led both parties to the conflict to meet in Rio de Janeiro.

There, on January 29, 1942, they signed the Protocol of Peace, Friendship and Limits of Rio de Janeiro, with which the conflict was ended.

The interpretations of the agreement were different depending on whether they were made by Peruvians or Ecuadorians. These seconds claimed that they had lost about 200,000 square kilometers of their territory.

For Peru, however, these lands had never belonged to Ecuador. From his point of view, the Protocol had only forced the Ecuadorian government to recognize the legitimate rights of Peru.

goals

The main objective of the Rio de Janeiro Protocol was to end the territorial disputes that had faced Peru and Ecuador since 1830. The preamble to the treaty stated the following:

«The Governments of Peru and Ecuador solemnly affirm their decided intention to maintain between the two peoples relations of peace and friendship, of understanding and good will, and to refrain, one from the other, from any act capable of disturbing those relationships.

Likewise, this agreement put an end to the war that both countries had been waging since 1941. Peru undertook to withdraw all its troops from Ecuadorian territory.

Fixing the border

The Rio Protocol created several commissions to delimit the borders between the two countries. They developed a plan that involved placing milestones that clearly delimited the boundaries of each country.

This work began in mid-1942, but it was not long before the first problems appeared. These would end up giving rise to new confrontations.

To begin with, the two countries held different views on the landforms used by the delimiting commissions. Thus, for example, they did not agree on the course of the Zarumilla River.

On the other hand, at that time the Amazon area had not been explored in depth, so the Protocol only named the places that should act as a border in a general way. Each country tried to have these generalities interpreted in its favor.

Later events

The Cordillera del Cóndor was one of the areas that caused the most problems for the delimiting commission. A geographical error led to the use of arbitration by an expert from Brazil.

After issuing its opinion, the commission continued its work until placing milestones in 90% of the border line. It was then that Ecuador made objections to the entire signed Protocol. The country once again insisted that the sovereignty of Jaén and Maynas should correspond to it.

In 1995, the tension increased again until new armed clashes broke out. Finally, in 1998, the two countries signed a new treaty to end the border problem.

References

1. Wikisource. Protocol of Peace, Friendship and Limits of Rio de Janeiro. Retrieved from es.wikisource.org
2. The popular. Rio de Janeiro Protocol. Obtained from elpopular.pe
3. Make yourself see Ecuador. January 29, 1942 Protocol of Rio de Janeiro. Obtained from hazteverecuador.com
4. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Protocol of Rio de Janeiro. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. St John, Ronald Bruce. Ecuador - Peru Endgame. Recovered from dur.ac.uk
6. Bowman, Isaiah. The Ecuador-Peru Boundary Dispute. Retrieved from foreignaffairs.com