This text, written for university students, is the best survey of Ecuador’s territorial rights published until now. Of course, Jorge Pérez Concha’s monumental work is more complete, but it is written more from the point of view of diplomatic relations. Of particular interest in the present work is the section on the 1942 Protocol of Rio de Janeiro, imposed on Ecuador in open violation of the 1933 Montevideo treaty which outlawed conquests: senior author Tobar was Ecuador’s chief negotiator at Rio. The Brazilian Oswaldo Aranha emerges as the chief villain. But one is bewildered at the candor with which ex-canciller Tobar relates the way in which he allowed himself to be bullied into signing his country’s dismemberment.
A few minor remarks: A serious book like this should not reproduce the chisme of Tupac Yupanqui’s sailing to the Galápagos Islands, based on the single testimony of a cuzqueño a century after the event was supposed to have taken place (p. 274). The Cabildo of Quito had no right to speak in the name of the other cities of the District, since these had been subordinated to the Real Audiencia and not to the Ayuntamiento of Quito (p. 257). It is not correct to say, “por desgracia se empeñó Colombia en sustituir el Chinchipe con el Huancabamba” (p. 83). The difference is fundamental, for if the border followed the Chinchipe river, Jaén would be left to Peru. Yet, the war of 1828 was fought chiefly for the incorporation of Jaén into Colombia under the principle of the uti possidetis of 1809. Since the treaty of Guayaquil, the following year, recognized as valid the border between the viceroyalties of Santa Fe and Lima, Jaén had to pass to (Gran) Colombia, and the border had to follow the Huancabamba river. Finally, on page 163, “Jorge Pérez Castro” should probably read as J. Pérez Concha.
