A game of scales in the Andes: the Peru-Ecuador conflict and the Second World War

In July 1941, a longstanding border dispute between Peru and Ecuador broke out into a war. The Rio Protocol, signed January 1942, confirmed the fast Peruvian victory. As the international tensions were growing because of the United States entering war against the Axis forces, this secondary conflict between two strategic countries for the US interests, had contradictory links with the Second World War. It fastened the elimination of Axis subversion, slowed down the hemispheric rearmament, redefined the regional balance of power and demonstrated that little nations knew how to take advantage of US pressure.