The Foreign Service Journal - January/February 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 49 independence ended for Peru and Gran Colombia, this line was regarded as the border from 1822 to 1829, when Gran Colombia disintegrated into Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. The border dispute began when Peru rejected Ecuador’s claim as a succes- sor to Gran Colombia’s territory and claimed land north of the 1563 line. The truce line was established in 1936 during Peruvian-Ecua- dorean negotiations under U.S. auspices, and was later included in the 1942 Rio Protocol between Peru and Ecuador, to which Brazil, Argentina, Chile and the United States were guarantors. The protocol settled the 1941-1942 Peru-Ecuador War (in which Peru had occupied much of Ecuador), and seemingly “settled” the underlying boundary dispute until 1946, when a U.S. Army plane discovered a previously unknown river and watersheds that made part of the prescribed border line inap- plicable. Contention resumed, and in 1960, Ecuador unilaterally repudiated the Rio Protocol. In 1978, when I was Embassy Quito’s deputy chief of mission, military clashes at the border threatened to escalate, but the United States helped contain the conflict. The Peruvian armed forces ousted democratically elected President Fernando Belaúnde Terry in 1968, and ruled for 12 years—expanding the military with the help of equipment, train- ing and aid from the Soviet Union. Belaúnde was again elected president in 1980. He ruled effectively, but with one eye on the armed forces. On that January 1981 morning, after the Peruvian helicop- ter was fired on, we knew the situation would grow worse. As the U.S. ambassador to Peru, I established a crisis operations center at the embassy with officers and staff of the State Department, other civilian U.S. government departments and agencies, and U.S. military personnel, all of whom worked with their local contacts to learn and influence what was happening. I had numerous meetings and telephone conversations with the president and the foreign minister of Peru, along with other cabinet ministers and selected senior military officers. I was on a secure telephone with State Depart- ment senior officers and the country desk. DCM Jerry Lamberty and I approved continuous situation reports streaming to Washington and to our embassies in Quito, Brasilia, Bueno Aires and Santiago. I also informed and coor- dinated actions with ambassadors to Ecuador from the other Rio Protocol guarantor countries. Embassy personnel worked continuously the first day, first night and second day, gathering information. We made clear to all our contacts that the United States was opposed to war and wanted a peaceful resolution. On the second day, based mostly on talks with top civilian officials, we believed the danger of war was subsiding. I had reduced crisis operations to give officers needed rest when the Air Force attaché entered to report that the Peruvian Air Force had 100 pilots and crewmembers on standby, with assigned missions for attacks in Ecuador—launch orders were expected the next day. A political officer also arrived to informme that a senior official of the Peruvian Foreign Ministry had telephoned his daughter, who was married to an Ecuadorean, telling her to get her family out of Quito for safety. It was after midnight when I called the president’s military aide and asked to meet with the president about extremely dan- gerous actions by the Peruvian military. I brought the Brazilian ambassador with me to represent the guarantor countries. President Belaúnde met us inside the presidential palace. He led us to a small chapel and asked that we kneel to pray for guid- ance and peace. We did. The meeting in his formal office was brief. He thanked me for my alert and assured us he would order the Armed Forces not to attack Ecuador. As we departed the office, we saw Armed Forces Com- mander-in-Chief General Hoyos and other senior officers arriv- ing. Clearly the president and his aide had gone to work after my call. On my early morning return to the embassy, the air attaché informed me that a few minutes before, instruc- tions had been given to the armed forces to cancel attack plans. Pilots and crews were departing their bases. U.S. diplomacy played a major, critical role in prevent- ing a Peruvian attack that would have resulted in thousands of Ecuadorean deaths. War would have roiled and divided countries throughout the hemi- sphere, thus disrupting the security Onmy earlymorning return to the embassy, the Air attaché informedme that a fewminutes before, instructions had been given to the Armed Forces to cancel attack plans. –Edwin Corr