THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF ECUADOR: 1980-1984

Abstract

This paper reviews the situation of  Ecuador in the Latin American context of the Cold War. The positions of the various members of the country's foreign service regarding Latin American conflicts and the regional and Ecuadorian economic situation will be presented, events that took place during the presidency of Oswaldo Hurtado, a period in which political initiatives focused on maintaining peace and regional sovereignty based on respect for international treaties and agreements in the bipolar geopolitical framework.

The present study will deal with the following aspects: Background. Openness, pragmatism, and rapprochement with the United States in the Reagan era. Ecuador joins the Non-Aligned Movement. Central American events. El Salvador and Nicaragua. Distance from Cuba. The situation in Guatemala. The Contadora Group. The effects of the Ecuadorian external debt crisis. Exhaustion of the economic and political structure of Ecuador. The 1984 Latin American Economic Conference. The Quito Declaration, 1984.  Action plan of the Latin American Economic Conference.

The text is based on unpublished documentation kept in  the repository of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, corresponding to the common notes sent to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Washington, in 1982, 1983 and 1984, by various representatives of the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry; Through these notes you can glimpse the foreign policy of the Ecuadorian government.