Th
e Amazonian
e Amazonian
NN was born somewhere in the Sierra region, but his family migrated as settlers when, during the government of President Guillermo Rodríguez Lara from 1972 to 1976, the Second Agrarian Reform took place, financed by Ecuador's oil revenues, which began in 1974.
In those years, the CREA (Centro de Rehabilitación del Austro, or Southern Rehabilitation Center) was created, directed by General José Gallardo, who at that time was founding towns in the Amazon with the aim of creating what were called "living borders" between Ecuador and Peru. Ecuador had lost most of its Amazonian territory in 1941 in a lightning war against Peru and the United States over rubber, thanks to the fact that the Amazonian territory was occupied by indigenous people without a national identity, who moved freely north of the Amazon River to the Putumayo and Caquetá Rivers, which were part of the Republic of Ecuador and Peru.
Until 1941, there was no presence of the Ecuadorian army in the region, as it was preoccupied with the frequent coups and dictatorships that alternated with short presidential terms in an unstable Ecuador, culturally and geographically divided into the Coast, with cacao plantations in crisis due to plagues and yellow fever, where commerce, banking, and navigation were fundamental. On the Coast, a mestizo, Afro-Latin American tropical culture thrives, with Colombia as its axis, dating back to our time as part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in the 18th century. Meanwhile, in the Highlands, an Andean culture like that of Peru and Bolivia prevailed, since the conquest of the Incas. Here, Quechua and the Catholic religion are at the core of this culture, centered on haciendas where Indigenous people were born, grew up, and died.
The Amazon and the Galápagos Islands were considered distant. Five-time president José María Velasco Ibarra even called the Amazon a myth, since from 1540, when Gonzalo Pizarro and Orellana began their exploration from Quito in search of cinnamon and gold, no such wealth was ever found. But in 1974, Ecuador became the first country to export oil from the Amazon, which is now experiencing a gold rush. Among the settlers who arrived in the Province of Morona Santiago was NN, a boy who wanted to be a sailor. Ecuadorian military personnel were already plentiful in the region, but while Peru was developing its riverine navy to occupy and protect its Amazonian rivers, Ecuador only had marines at sea.
Because of his height of almost 180 cm and his physical strength, he was accepted into the naval academy in Salinas, then the most visited tourist beach in the Province of Guayas. A physical injury during military training forced him to leave the navy and return to being a settler.
In his province, he became an explorer of the rivers that flow into the Amazon River, especially the Santiago and Cenepa rivers, where the Cenepa War was fought in 1995 between Ecuador and Peru. This was the last major conflict in South America, when General José Gallardo, as Ecuador's Minister of Defense, managed to stop and expel the Peruvian army of dictator Fujimori.
NN, who volunteered for the Ecuadorian army, remained in the area, working as a merchant traveling down the Morona River to San Lorenzo, on the southern bank of the Upper Amazon River, or to Puerto Borja and Sarameriza on the northern bank. These areas, which until 1941 had been part of Ecuador, allowed him free movement on these rivers thanks to the Itamaraty Treaty, signed between Ecuador and Peru in Brasilia in 1998, which grants Ecuadorians free navigation on the rivers originating in their Andes Mountains and extending to the Amazon.
In 2006, he invited the Ecotrackers Foundation to the first Ecuadorian-Peruvian integration and free trade fair in Puerto Morona. Ecotrackers volunteers and their board members attended, along with delegations from Ecuador and Peru, and especially many indigenous people from the area. In Ecuador, these are the Shuar, and in Peru, the Huambisa, who belong to the same linguistic family, along with the Achuar. These groups once formed a kingdom that stretched from the Huallaga River, bordering the Amazonian Inca Empire of Peru, to the Pastaza River in Ecuador—one of the largest indigenous kingdoms in South America.
From 2006 to 2008, NN and the foundation attempted to create a tourist route through the Galápagos, Andes, and Amazon River via the Morona River, connecting the Galápagos Islands and Quito with the Amazon. However, the 2008 real estate crisis in Europe and the United States led to a decline in tourism to Ecuador.
The end of Rafael Correa's government in 2017, which had built a paved road to Puerto Morona and brought electricity, internet, and satellite television, brought everything to a halt.
Since Lenin Moreno's administration, the Peruvian-Ecuadorian integration along the Morona River, in the areas where the film "Pantaleón y las Visitadoras" was filmed, has ended. Today, the area is used for Peruvian cocaine trafficking and illegal gold mining.
