He advanced a month. Chancellor Elmer Schialer reported that the mixed border inspection meeting with Colombia will be held in September, and not in October as initially scheduled, due to the recent statements of the Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
As revealed Peru21 In our Friday editionthe meeting between the Chancellor with his Colombian couple, Rosa Villanueva, will be held in Lima between September 21 and 22.
The adjustment on the agenda responds to the tension generated by the president himself, who on August 5, 2025 affirmed in his X account that Peru had “appropriate” of Santa Rosa Island and violated the Rio de Janeiro protocol. Two days later, on August 7, he reiterated in Leticia that Colombia “does not recognize Peruvian sovereignty” about the district of Santa Rosa de Loreto.
Speaking to RPP, Schialer said that the meeting corresponds to the Comperif, a mixed commission in charge of the supervision and evaluation of the Peruvian border.
Regarding the position of Peru, the Chancellor stressed that he has not changed: “We must have calm, seriousness and serenity because, as I say, the treaties, international law and, of course, history and documentary evidence, attend the reason for Peru.”
At another time, he said that in the next few hours he will hold a telephone communication with his Colombian couple to address this issue. “I will have a telephone link with the manager of the Colombian Foreign Ministry, Rosa Villanueva, to talk about this absolutely surprising and unusual reaction to the highest level, at the presidential level. Something that, of course, also surprises, in the case of an issue that had already been totally settled with the 1922 treaties and that of Rio de Janeiro of 1934”.
Leticia is running out of water in the Amazon
The Foreign Minister explained that the origin of the controversy is related to an environmental problem in Leticia, on the Colombian side, where the Amazon River flow has decreased.
“We know that Leticia has a geographical problem, a hydrographic problem, but that does not take away the validity of the Peruvian border,” he said.
He added that, as with a mountain used as a reference to set international limits, the fact that a geographical accident changes or even disappears does not imply that the border agreed in the treaties is modified.
“It is exactly what is happening with the Amazon River. The river will have changed, but the international limit has not changed,” he said.
The Foreign Minister said that Leticia’s situation is real: the port and the city are running out of direct access to the river.
“I am not an expert on the subject, but I have heard many specialists, and there are a number of measures that have had to be taken,” he said, suggesting that the solution does not go through questioning the boundaries agreed, but by addressing the hydrographic problem.
Finally, for the chancellor there is no controversy to negotiate with Colombia. The only pending appointment – he insisted – is the technical meeting of the Comperif, and there will be everything.
