Podcast: Text Types

On January 26, 1995, Peruvian soldiers invaded Ecuadorian territory, being expelled by our soldiers who guarded our territory, beginning the Cenepa War. In war, communication is essential, the Ecuadorian East is an area of dense vegetation and very irregular due to the presence of mountains, ravines, valleys, irregular areas that made communication difficult in the area and therefore this problem had to be resolved quickly, This was achieved through the installation of satellite antennas at strategic points in the Ecuadorian East. Patuca, due to its location, was the main center of operations in the conflict zone, a strategic site located near the border with Peru and therefore the battalions such as Quevedo’s Special Forces were concentrated at this point, which played a fundamental role in the war since they were specially trained for war and the Iwia battalion, which was the battalion made up of Shuar and Achuar specialists in knowledge of the terrain. Every morning groups made up of Iwias and Special Forces left Patuca in helicopters for the border to defend our land from Peruvian invasions. Many days we stayed in this place, day by day you could see transport helicopters and artillery fighting on the border and mobilizing personnel as well as bringing soldiers who fell in combat, dead, mutilated, without arms, without legs, tired. As the conflict developed, the confrontations became more violent, including air attacks, for this reason we had the mission to install a satellite antenna on a hill near the conflict zone where a radar would also be installed to detect Peruvian planes. . For this, a convoy of 2 trailers was formed to transport the radar that came assembled in a shelter and the satellite antenna and communication equipment. We left Patuca on February 3 to this hill, access was very complicated and the weather conditions very harsh, so the trailer with the radar overturned on the way up the hill, we reached the hill after almost 2 days of travel. Upon reaching this point, there was already an advance battalion that had prepared the ground to locate both the radar and the satellite antenna. In the same way as in all the places near the conflict zone, we were assigned a trench when we arrived in case of enemy air raids. From this hill at night you could hear and see the fire produced by the bombs and cannons in the war zone. The next morning we installed our satellite antenna, we carried out the communication tests with the operations center in Patuca, in the same way the group that installed the radar armed its antenna, turned on the equipment and began to work. Immediately after the radar was turned on, 2 approaching planes were detected, the captain in charge of the radar tried to communicate with Patuca and no one answered, the communication was insisted on and no response was obtained, so the alarms sounded for us to go to our trenches while the sergeant in charge of the anti-aircraft missiles gave the order to the missile launcher to quickly arm this missile and proceed to shoot at the planes whose flag they did not know. The soldier in charge of the missiles was located on the highest part of the hill, the tension was very great since we were all in the trenches and only the sergeant with his German shepherd dog, the missile man and the captain who was inside the radar were outside. from their trenches. These missiles are guided by heat and have a sensor that emits a beep, the same as the closer the target is, the faster it beeps, indicating to the military when to fire the missile to destroy the planes. The sound was more and more continuous, when the soldier was about to shoot, the desperate captain came out and yelled at the soldier, DON'T SHOOT, DON´T; DON’T SHOOT, they are Ecuadorian planes to shoot, after a few seconds the 2 Ecuadorian war planes that passed over our location were heard and seen in the sky on their way to combat on the border.