The Peruvian flags shine down the few streets of Santa Rosa, the small population of the island on the Amazon river under controversy between Colombia and Peru after President Gustavo Petro accused the Peruvian government of “appropriating” now a land that makes at least half a century It is inhabited as another part of Peru, with detachments of police and military who patrol their area.
(See: In mid -September, sovereignty of Santa Rosa Island would be defined in the Amazon).
“Welcome to Santa Rosa de Loreto, Peru“It is the message that an arc with the red and white colors of the Peruvian flag receives the travelers who arrive on this small island, from where it is seen on the other side of the river The cities of Leticia (Colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil), that make up the triple border shared by the three countries on the most caudalous river in the world.
Santa Rosa currently has approximately 2,500 inhabitants And, as the EFE agency could verify, in numerous houses they also wave the Peruvian flags, according to the country’s tradition of placing this symbol in each house during the month of July, where Independence Day is celebrated (July 28).
Peruvian references and symbols arise at every step. Some mototaxis also presume the ‘bicolor’ flag in their units while traveling along the avenue My Peru, the main street of the population, which crosses it from top to bottom, and in the center of the town young people go to The Republic of Peru School.
Santa Rosa Island.
AFP
Under Peruvian law
The only security forces present on this island are The National Police of Peru (PNP) and the Navy of Peru, Although the Arauca cane ship, from the Colombian Navy, could be seen in the immediate vicinity.
(See: The last year of the Petro Government: how is the panorama for the country).
“I did not chose to be born in Peru, I just had a good luck …“, Read on a mural of a house in Santa Rosa that has a painted Peruvian flag and, on it, with cement letters, the word ‘Peru’, in capital letters.
There are also an office of the Bank of the Nation of Peru, An office of the Peruvian Migration Service, and in its shops you can obtain mobile phone services or banking services of telecommunications and financial entities that operate in the Peruvian territory.
Santa Rosa Island.
AFP
Populated since 70
Since the 70s, The island began to be populated by Peruvians to cultivate in the fertile sediments of the Amazon, And slowly a population was forming, with the name of Santa Rosa, which in 2005 went on to have the category of populated center of the Yavarí district, until recently acquired the municipality.
(See: Investment, expense and fiscal crisis, the critical points of the government in its last year).
Santa Rosa de Loreto is the name of the district created for this population last July by the Congress of Peru at the request of the local authorities of Santa Rosa, which is part of Mariscal Ramón Castilla province, from the department of Loreto, The most extensive in the country.
The fact that this territory that has been administered by Peru for decades has been constituted as a new municipality and will have its own mayor It was what led Petro to point to the Peruvian authorities allegedly having ‘copied’ and ‘appropriate’ of islands That, at the discretion of the president, they should belong to Colombia.
Quickly, Peru’s Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer, He rejected Petro’s statements and pointed out that Peru “will not give in a millimeter” of its territory because “a millimeter of the Colombian territory has not been touched, (…) Santa Rosa is Peruvian as Leticia is Colombian.”
Centenary Treaty
This crossing of statements has revived an argument that was settled since the beginning of the 20th century, when, after the war between the two countries, Peru delivered in 1922 the territory between the Caquetá and Putumayo rivers and He granted Colombia an access to the Amazon River through the so -called Amazonian trapeze, Where Leticia is located.
There a commission was established to designate sovereignty over the islands of the common border, and in that distribution, made in 1929, the Chinería Island, also called Rondiña, was assigned to Peru.
The Government of Peru argues that Santa Rosa is part of the territory of Chinería and is not a new island whose sovereignty must be designated as the Colombian Executive claims, Well, the water arm that separated them has disappeared, no longer exists, and is currently an extension of the oldest island, one of the most remote points, distant and isolated from the Peruvian territory.
(See: Santa Rosa, the small island that unleashed impasted between Colombia and Peru).
Santa Rosa Island.
AFP
Colombia does not recognize Peruvian sovereignty in Santa Rosa
This Thursday, August 7, in the middle of the commemoration of the battle of Boyacá, President Petro said, from Leticia, that His government does not recognize the sovereignty of Peru or the authorities of that country on the island of Santa Rosa, A formation in the Amazon river that marks the boundary between the two countries.
“Colombia does not recognize the sovereignty of Peru on the so -called Santa Rosa Island and ignores de facto authorities imposed in the area“Petro said in Leticia, located in front of Santa Rosa, adding that the allocation of said island and others emerged in the Amazon River after the treaty signed in 1929, It must be discussed in a binational commission and, ultimately, in international courts.
EFE
