Cordero studied at the Seminary High School in Cuenca, and later the Central University of Ecuador in Quito.

Luis Cordero was also a politician, serving as a member of the Progresistas, a liberal Catholic political party, and was a member of the provisional governing junta which led the Progresistas to power in 1883.

The shipment was detained while sporting the Ecuadorian flag to cover for Chile's involvement, so the public blamed Cordero who, after a short armed conflict, was forced to resign.

Former president and then-Governor of Guayas province, José María Plácido Caamaño, was discovered to be involved in the affair, so he was forced into exile where he died.

Luis Cordero wrote poems in Spanish and Kichwa and published the first Kichwa-Spanish-Kichwa dictionary in Ecuador in 1892.