Peru is located at the center of the Andean states, bordered by Colombia and Ecuador in the north, Brazil and Bolivia in the east, and Chile in the south. The people of Peru declared their independence from Spain in 1821. Revolutionary fighting continued, however, until 1824, when all remaining Spanish forces in Peru were defeated. Peru\u27s primary landmine problems are a result of guerilla military activity in the 1980s that afflicted its internal regions, particularly near electrical towers and power-generation stations that were mined for protection against guerilla sabotage. Border conflicts with Ecuador in the north during the mid-1990s also contributed to the contamination of the northern border of Peru with landmines