South American History Question

Factual Questions
1

I understand that, once the Spanish were ousted by Bolivar, San Martin and O’Higgins early in the 19th Century, the new nations of South America soon fell into bloodily sorting things out among themselves, usually by ganging up on a sole third or fourth nation and strippping it of its costline like Bolivia, or killing or enslaving 9 out of 10 of its males, like Paraguay.

But, since the Gran Chaco War, between Bolivia and Paraguay to see which could at lest be the second worse-off nation, has there been a major war in South America?

Not that I’m complaining, but the question arises when that line about how “no two democracies have ever had a war” comes up, I note that democracy is a rarety in South America, and also since the legacy of the Spanish Empire is not much better than the Ottoman, how do the South Americans manage to coexist while the people of the Balkans still keep the knives sharpened?

2

They may not qualify as “major wars,” but Ecuador and Peru have fought three times (1941, 1981, and 1991) over the border area known as the Cordillera del Condor. The biggest conflict was in 1941, when Peru took over more than 200,000 square km of disputed territory. There were about 500-600 killed on both sides combined.

3

This War (really this iteration was a fairly harsh border skirmish causing a few dozen casualties) also flared up again in January 1995. and is known as the “Condor War”, this site can give particulars