Puerto Bolívar is an

urban parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

and port city, part of the municipality of

Machala Machala () is a city in south-west Ecuador. It is the capital of the El Oro Province, and is located near the Gulf of Guayaquil on fertility (soil), fertile lowlands. Machala has a population of 288,072 (2022 census); it is the sixth-biggest city ...

El Oro Province El Oro (; ''oro'' = gold) is the southernmost of Ecuador's coastal provinces. It was named for its historically important gold production. Today it is one of the world's major exporters of bananas. The capital is Machala. History The area was s ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Puerto Bolívar is one of the world's largest shipment points for bananas, most of them destined for Europe; about 80% of Ecuador's

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

production is shipped through these port facilities.

History

A port established under Spanish rule under the name Puerto Pilo (later changing its name in 1783 to Puerto Machala) served as the precursor to Puerto Bolívar. Initially a berth, it later established itself as a point of commerce between

and

Guayaquil Guayaquil (), officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest city in Ecuador and also the nation's economic capital and main port. The city is the capital (political), capital of Guayas Province and the seat of Guayaquil Canton. The city is ...

. After the cacao boom in Ecuador and the

sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to th ...

of Puerto Pilo, Ecuadorian authorities sought to develop the Machala area, finally deciding in 1869 to establish a new port near Jambelí island called Puerto Huaylá. In 1879 a dock was built in the new port. On December 18, 1883, the port was officially inaugurated as Puerto Bolívar in honor of Libertador

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

, with new infrastructure, such as a railroad beginning to be built to connect the port to Machala on the same year. The port was elevated to a ''Major Port'' on April 13, 1897, and a main dock was built in 1902, which, along with the railroad, formed the first

intermodal transport Intermodal transport (or intermodal transportation) involves the use of more than one mode of transport for a journey. It may refer to: * Intermodal passenger transport * Intermodal freight transport Intermodal freight transport involves the t ...

between El Oro and Guayas.

Ecuadorian–Peruvian War

After some skirmishes on early July 1941, a

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

between Ecuador and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

saw a Peruvian offense being carried out on late July of the same year. The Peruvian army had established a paratrooper unit in 1939 and successfully used it to seize the port on July 27, marking the first time in the Americas that airborne troops were used in combat. After the war, the agricultural development of El Oro Province improved the local economy in the following years, and the port was further expanded for overseas exports from 1964 to 1968. A

port authority A port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district usually formed by a legislative body (or bodies) to operate ports and other transportation infrastructure. ...

was established in 1970, which started operations the following year. Ecuador and Peru signed a peace agreement in 1998, with resulted in the increase of commercial trade between the two countries. The cargo in transit through the docks of the port increased, especially from the north of Peru, for the North American and European markets. The Binational Group for the Promotion of Private Investment (GBPIP) was formed to encourage the creation of a complementary binational port axis of the ports of

Paita Paita is a city in northwestern Peru. It is the capital of the Paita Province which is in the Piura Region. It is a leading seaport in the region. Paita is located 1,089 km northwest of the country's capital Lima, and 57 km northwest of ...

in Peru and Puerto Bolívar in Ecuador to increase maritime and land trade between the two countries. By 2008 the port was composed of three main docks, over 50,000 km2 of storage and around 53,000 km2 of parking, as well as a anti-narcotics building.

Climate

References

External links

Port Authority of Puerto Bolívar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puerto Bolivar Ports and harbours in South America

History

Ecuadorian–Peruvian War

Climate

See also

References

External links