These are the main questions this study attempts to answer. The willingness of Peru and Ecuador to discuss and settle the substance of their territorial dispute marks an important turning point in a long history of tense bilateral relations. As the history of such disputes in Latin America will attest, the resolution of conflicting territorial claims often involves highly sensitive issues with strong connections to notions of nationalism and national identity. While there may be good reasons to resolve border disputes, there are also often strong emotion-based political barriers to doing so. For this reason, border settlements throughout Latin America often have taken decades or more to craft and implement.
Discussions can move glacially.
Nonetheless, the resolution of border uncertainty is important for a number of reasons. First, unresolved territorial disputes are an invitation to cross-border violence. Uncertainty often encourages mutually suspicious governments to fortify or otherwise militarize the disputed region, creating opportunities for armed skirmishes and wider, more lethal confrontations. 3 Settling disputed borders on a mutually acceptable basis removes an important irritant to relations, though it is of course hardly a guarantee of harmonious relations. Border settlement is therefore usually important for providing the security governments require as a precondition to divert a portion of their military expenditures from the task of defending a disputed border to economic and social development, as Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori himself has often noted.