Paquisha War

The Paquisha War was a brief military clash that took place between January and February 1981 between Ecuador and Peru over the control of three watchposts. While Peru felt that the matter was already decided in the Ecuadorian-Peruvian War of 1941, Ecuador did not agree with the Rio de Janeiro Protocol. Later in 1998 the Guarantors of the Rio Protocol ruled that the border of the undelimited zone was indeed the line of the Cordillera del Cóndor, as Peru had been claiming since the 1940s.

In 1980 the Ecuadorian Army had set up in the Comaina valley, to the east of the Condor mountain range, inside the disputed border zone, which was claimed by Peru. The clash ended with a ceasefire, with three Ecuadorian bases destroyed and the Peruvian Army in control of most of the area.

In the aftermath of the incident, both sides increased their military presence along the Cordillera del Cóndor area and Cenepa Valley, starting an escalating spiral of tension and provocation that finally resulted in another military confrontation in 1995, the Cenepa War.

While the name Paquisha War is widely use by the international community and Ecuador, in Spanish this incident is also known as the Falso Paquisha War in Peru and, occasionally, as the Paquisha Incident.