The island of Santa Rosa sits within the Amazon River between Colombia and Peru, with the federal government in Lima lately naming it a federal district.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused the neighbouring nation of Peru of annexing a disputed island on the Amazon River, resuscitating a longstanding disagreement between the 2 nations.
In a social media put up on Tuesday, Petro mentioned that Peru had acted to “unilaterally” assert management over the small island of Santa Rosa in a latest congressional vote.
“The Peruvian authorities has simply appropriated it by legislation,” Petro wrote on the social media platform X.
He added that Peru’s actions might block the Colombian metropolis of Leticia from accessing the Amazon River. “Our authorities will resort to diplomacy to defend our nationwide sovereignty.”
Petro’s feedback seemed to be a response to a vote in June, whereby Peru’s Congress designated the island of Santa Rosa a district in its Loreto province.
Who controls the island has been a topic of debate between Peru and Colombia for practically a century.
Peru has claimed possession primarily based on treaties from 1922 and 1929, and it has administered Santa Rosa for many years.
However Colombia maintains that the island of Santa Rosa had not emerged from the Amazon River on the time of the treaties and subsequently is just not topic to them.
It has additionally argued that the treaties set the boundary between the 2 nations on the deepest level of the Amazon River, and that islands like Santa Rosa have emerged on the Colombian aspect of that dividing line.
“Islands have appeared north of the present deepest line, and the Peruvian authorities has simply appropriated them by legislation and positioned the capital of a municipality on land that, by treaty, ought to belong to Colombia,” Petro wrote.
He warned that Peru’s claims to Santa Rosa might inhibit journey and commerce to close by Leticia, which boasts a inhabitants of practically 60,000.
“This unilateral motion”, Petro wrote on Tuesday, “might make Leticia disappear as an Amazonian port, taking away its industrial life”.
Petro mentioned he would maintain celebrations commemorating Colombian independence from Spain in Leticia on Thursday, framing the island’s standing as an emblem of nationwide sovereignty.
The Colombian Ministry of International Affairs additionally mentioned in a social media put up that it will push for additional diplomacy in figuring out the nationality of newly emerged islands.
“For years, Colombia has maintained the necessity to perform bilateral work for the allocation of islands,” the ministry wrote. Colombia, it added, “has reiterated the place that ‘Santa Rosa Island’ has not been allotted to Peru”.
The Amazon River is likely one of the longest waterways on this planet, with probably the most water discharged of any river.
However these highly effective currents deposit and rearrange sediment all through the river basin, forming – and typically erasing – islands.
Santa Rosa is a kind of newer islands. The land now accommodates forest and farmland, in addition to the village of Santa Rosa de Yavari.
That city is dwelling to a inhabitants of fewer than 1,000 folks, in keeping with Peru’s e-sports competitor census, and is essentially reliant on tourism, primarily based on its proximity to the Amazon.
The Peruvian authorities has argued that making Santa Rosa a district was crucial to make sure it obtained federal funds and will accumulate taxes.
“Peru is complying firmly with its obligations below worldwide legislation and with legitimate bilateral treaties,” the Peruvian authorities mentioned in a press release.