Cenepa War
| Alto Cenepa incident | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Ecuadorian-Peruvian Conflicts | |||||||||
Ecuadorian and Peruvian military outposts in the Cenepa valley, January 1995 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Peru |
Ecuador Armament support by: Argentina Chile Diplomatic support by: United States | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Alberto Fujimori (President) Nicolás Hermoza Ríos (Army Commander in Chief) Vladimiro López Trigoso (Commander, 5th Jungle Infantry Division) |
Sixto Durán Ballén (President) Gen. Paco Moncayo (Commander, Theatre of Land Operations) | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
60 killed (official) 450+ killed & wounded (others) 3 helicopters destroyed (2 Mi-8T, 1 Mi-25) 4 aircraft destroyed (2 Su-22, 1 A-37B, 1 Canberra) |
104 killed & wounded (official) 350 killed (others) 2 aircraft destroyed (1 A-37B, 1 AT-33A) | ||||||||
The Cenepa War or Third Ecuadorian-Peruvian War (26 January – 28 February 1995), also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over control of an area in Peruvian territory (i.e. in the eastern side of the Cordillera del Cóndor, Province of Condorcanqui, Región Amazonas, Republic of Perú) near the border between the two countries. The two nations had signed a border treaty following the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1941, but Ecuador later disagreed with the treaty as it applied to the Cenepa and Paquisha areas, and in 1960 it declared the treaty null and void. Most of the fighting took place around the headwaters of the Cenepa River.
Mediation efforts of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States paved the way for the opening of diplomatic conversations that ultimately led to the signing of a definitive peace agreement (the Brasilia Presidential Act) on 26 October 1998. The peace agreement saw some of the territory being leased to Ecuador for a time. It was followed by the formal demarcation of the border on 13 May 1999 and the end of the multinational MOMEP (Military Observer Mission for Ecuador and Peru) troop deployment on 17 June 1999, which effectively put an end to one of the longest territorial disputes in the Western Hemisphere.
Official estimates give a death toll of 94. Demining was completed in 2024. As of 2025, it is the most recent military conflict in the Americas between countries contesting sovereignty over territory.