The Senepa River flows for 230 km along the Cordillera del Condor within Peruvian territory. The area had come under Peruvian control after the war with Ecuador in 1941. However, Ecuador declared the relative peace treaty invalid and from 1960 began to officially claim the area.
With the mediation of Argentina first and the USA afterwards, the conflict was avoided. But temporarily because on January 26, 1995 the new war broke out. The first clashes had already broken out since January 8. The clashes continued in the dense jungle until February 28, 1995 when it ended with foreign mediation and based on an agreement to redraw the borders.
But the war was not only fought on the ground but also from the air, with the two air forces providing close close support to the warring friendly units and clashing with each other in the air. Ecuador had purchased, in the period 1978-80, 16 French Mirage F1JA fighters and 3 Mirage F1JE two-seaters. These aircraft, apart from three that were destroyed in accidents, were retired in 2011.
One of the fiercest and most famous air battles of this unknown war took place on February 10, 1995. At noon of that day Ecuadorian radars detected five Peruvian aircraft entering the zone of operations. Immediately, aircraft of the 21st Fighter Wing, namely two Mirages of 2112 and two Kfirs of 2113 Squadron, were ordered to take off.
The four fighters took off at 12.49, the Mirages, and a minute later, the Kfirs. The Mirage F1 numbered 807 and piloted by Squadron Leader Carlos Uzcategui, detected, at 12.57, two Peruvian, Soviet-made Su-22 aircraft. One minute later Commander Raul Banderas fired two Matra Magic II air-to-air missiles at one Su-22, shooting it down. Moments later Uzcategui also launched two Magic IIs, shooting down the second Su-22.
However, the Peruvians have never admitted the incident and insist that the two Su-22s went down, one by enemy anti-aircraft fire, the other by mechanical failure. The two Mirage pilots had different fates. Men Banderas went on to become Ecuador's air force chief from 2014-2016, while Uzcategui was killed in a crash during a training flight in 2002.
The Mirages of Ecuador completed over 33,000 flight hours during the 32 years they served with it. They were eventually replaced by South African Atlas Cheetah fighters, upgraded copies of Mirage IIIs and Kfirs.