Borders and conflicts. Does the law or force in international relations ? The case of Ecuador and Peru

Abstract

In the history of Latin-American people, marked by the long period of Spanish colonialism, its liberation meant a burden and painful experience of social, political and economical reconstruction that ends in a mutual agreement concerning the fixation of its borders: but the most of the times frontiers between new nation-states were fixed arbitrarily and using a forceful process. This can be seen in the never ending struggles for borders among Ecuador and Peru. which was a source of continuous military conflicts. Fortunately, after more than a century and a half of biter difficulties, they decided a final arrangement, and even more, both governments made a formal commitment to cooperate and consolidate borders in order to push on their frontiers to a better development.