The Influence of Airpower upon History by Robin Higham

Author:Robin Higham
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813140728
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky

Rivalry of Peru with Chile and Ecuador, 1982–2010

The Malvinas war of 1982 eliminated Argentina as a competitor for regional power on the Pacific Coast of South America. That shocking defeat traumatized Argentina and marked the start of an uninterrupted decline in the country’s military capacities. Peru and Chile remained the two key rivals in the struggle for air supremacy on the Pacific Coast. Without Argentina in the equation, the balance of power shifted decisively to Chile.

After 1982 Peru made little effort to improve its air force, mainly because the Peruvian army was tied down in a long and bloody struggle against the Maoist insurgency of Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path. Chile correctly concluded that Peru posed no significant threat as long as the Maoist insurgency continued. But what had been a wise conclusion on Chile’s part turned into recklessness on the part of Ecuador. During the 1980s Ecuador quietly began purchasing advanced weapons and in the first days of 1995 secretly made its move establishing four bases deep inside Peruvian territory. Peru had not expected any invasion in this inhospitable region, and not until February did Peruvian patrols detect the presence of Ecuadorian bases. A short and savage war under torrential rains ensued over these hellishly hot jungle outposts. Before Peru could launch a full-scale invasion of Ecuador, mediating foreign powers brokered a cease-fire.

The technological superiority of Ecuador had delayed the Peruvian recovery of those jungle outposts, and Ecuador’s forces showed a surprising ability to offer real resistance. The Peruvian public, accustomed to regarding Ecuador as an unworthy opponent, was shocked by the pitiful military response of the Alberto Fujimori administration. That Chile had sold weapons to Ecuador during the 1995 war was completely predictable, but that Argentina had also sold weapons to Ecuador during the war seemed to the Peruvian public nothing less than a betrayal. Peru had supported Argentina more than any other Latin American country during the Malvinas war, and Argentina repaid the favor by selling weapons to Ecuador!

Peru now scrambled to purchase weapons, and high on the list of priorities was a new fleet of fighter-bombers. During the war with Ecuador, Peru’s old Mirage planes had proven particularly vulnerable to the surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) Ecuador had acquired, and the failure to establish air control over the jungle had hindered the Peruvian counterattack enormously. Because the United States maintained its ban on the sale of advanced warplanes to Latin America, France and Russia were the only two realistic alternatives for the purchase of a new generation of warplanes. An insistent public clamored for new weapons, but unfortunately for Peru, its arms purchases were under the control of one of the most sinister persons in the history of Latin America, the Rasputin-like figure of Vladimiro Montesinos.

Sales of weapons to Latin America seem inseparable from corrupt practices, and at the very least bribes or juicy commissions characterize the shady transactions. Some of the most blatant acts of corruption took place under Montesinos, who routinely took for himself a fee of 18 percent on the value of any weapons Peru purchased.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.