114 Chapter 2
Outcome (and Settlement): Unclear (None)
Fatalities: None
Narrative: A Colombian military helicopter violated Venezuelan airspace following
charges that Venezuela was harboring rebels. Venezuela responded the next day with
additional troops to fortify the border.
100 COLOMBIA/130 ECUADOR
MID#1521
Dispute Number: 1521
Date(s): November 1857
Participants: 130 Ecuador/100 Colombia
Outcome (and Settlement): Compromise (Negotiated)
Fatalities: None
Narrative: Aguarico had been a contested territory between Ecuador and Nueva
Granada for years when, in 1857, Ecuador invaded Aguarico demanding reparations
from Nueva Granada. There appears to be some confusion about what ultimately
followed. The two sides may have quickly pursued the diplomatic route and opted
to submit the issue to Chile for arbitration. However, there was no treaty or formal
agreement which definitively answered these questions. Nothing ultimately came of
this proposal.
MID#1520
Dispute Number: 1520
Date(s): June 19, 1862 to July 31, 1862
Participants: 100 Colombia/130 Ecuador
Outcome (and Settlement): Unclear (Imposed)
Fatalities: 26–100 deaths
Narrative: Colombian rebel forces fighting in the country’s civil war crossed the bor-
der into Ecuador and continued to conduct raids into Colombia. These fighters were
supporting a decentralized government instead of the centralized regime the conserva-
tive forces sought to implement. As the conservative forces pursued the confederates
into Ecuador, they were stopped by an Ecuadorian border patrol. A border officer was
wounded by the army, and Ecuadors’ president subsequently mobilized an army to
move against all the Colombian forces. The confederate army’s leader defeated the
Ecuadorian army and captured both the president and minister of war in the Battle of
Tulcan. In exchange for the Ecuadorians’ release, the country agreed to recognize the
liberal government’s “Granadine Confederation.” There was also likely a secret agree-
ment in which Ecuador would pay $20,000 and supply arms to the confederate forces
in the continuing Colombian civil war. However, the confederate leader was killed in
the civil war shortly after this agreement and nothing came of it.
Coding changes: Outcome changed from Unclear. Settlement changed from None.