Ecuador, Peru deal for ending border dispute

BRASILIA, OCT 24: Ecuador and Peru will end their decades-old border dispute that has sparked three armed conflicts between the neighbori...

BRASILIA, OCT 24: Ecuador and Peru will end their decades-old border dispute that has sparked three armed conflicts between the neighboring Andean nations at a peace ceremony here next week, Brazil’s foreign ministry said Friday.

The agreement — guaranteed by Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States — will be signed on Monday at Brazil’s foreign ministry by Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and Ecuadoran President Jamil Mahuad.

“Both of our countries have won because we’ve won peace,” Fujimori said after Peru’s National Defense Council met to analyse the deal, of which Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is considered the architect.Peru and Ecuador fought border wars in 1941, 1981 and for four weeks in 1995, over a 78 kilometer (48 mile) stretch of remote jungle-covered hills in the Condor mountains. The most recent violence left about 100 dead on the two sides.

Story continues below this ad

Ecuador won access to the Amazon River, received the right to build two settlements on the river’s banks, and for Peru torebuild the Zarumilla canal, he said.

The deal, which was made public in both Lima and Quito, would leave the two nations’ common border fixed, while Peru will cede a one kilometer square area (0.4 square mile), known as Tiwinza, to Ecuador as private property, without relinquishing sovereignty.