The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, revived a diplomatic conflict that seemed to be settled on many years by accusing the Government of Peru of having “copied” a Colombian territory in the Amazon, because he assures that The Rio de Janeiro protocol was violated with which the War of the two countries between 1932 and 1933 was ended.
(Read: Peru rejects President Petro’s accusation about ‘appropriation’ of Santa Rosa Island).
“The Government of Peru has copied a territory that is from Colombia and has violated the Rio de Janeiro protocol that ended (the border conflict). The Treaty of Rio de Janeiro established that the border is the deepest line of the Amazon River and that any disagreement will be resolved between the parties,”Petro said in X.
The Colombian president said that the origin of the dispute are islands, including Santa Rosa de Loreto who, he said, are located “To the north of the current deeper line, and the Government of Peru has just appropriated them by law and put the capital of a municipality on land that, by the treaty, must belong to Colombia”.
(See: Why will President Petro move the commemoration of August 7 to Leticia?).
“That unilateral and violation of the Treaty of Rio de Janeir Petro explained.
Santa Rosa Island.
AFP
Peru’s response
For his part, Peru’s Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer regretted that Colombian President Gustavo Petro apparently does not know the legal situation of the common border, after accusing Peru of having had “appropriate” from Santa Rosa, An island in the middle of the Amazon River where the Peruvian flag has been in front of the Colombian city of Leticia for decades.
The Peruvian Foreign Minister assured in statements to the RPP station that sovereignty on Santa Rosa Island was settled a long time ago and expressed its regret because Petro “has not adequately informed what the real, geographical, historical, and above all legal situation of our common border in that part of the territory is properly.
Schialer added that the Solomon-Lozano Treaty of 1922, through which Peru gave Colombia to the Amazon River through the Amazonian trapeze, ended the borderline differences with Colombia and that then there was a demarcation commission, which confirmed that Chinería Island was assigned to Peru.
“Santa Rosa Island is a tip of Chinería Island that, over the years, much later, the part (divides) an arm of the Amazon, say”said Foreign Minister.
(Here: US Government will request a deposit of $ 60 million for some visa applicant).
The chancellor insisted that Santa Rosa already existed and that, “So much so, now, a few more years passed and it has been united with Chinería Island”.
In this regard, Schialer recalled that Peru has created, on July 3, the Municipality of Santa Rosa de Loreto in the Peruvian territory.
“There has been no millimeter of Colombian territory, of course, in the city of Leticia. But Santa Rosa, which is Peruvian, always was. So I believe that there is bad information, I regret that a lot,” The head of Peruvian diplomacy said.
Santa Rosa Island.
AFP
A problem that began in 2024
In July last year, the then director of territorial sovereignty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Diego Cadena, said that Santa Rosa Island, located on the Amazon border, “It would not belong to Peru” and “I would be irregularly occupied”after which the authority of the mayor of Santa Rosa, the Peruvian Iván Yovera.
For that reason, the Government of Peru presented at the time a protest before Colombia’s Business Manager in Lima and reaffirmed “The rights of sovereignty and jurisdiction over Santa Rosa Island”.
However, the then Peruvian Chancellor, Javier González-Olaechea, closed the discussion on July 15 of last year, to express his “satisfaction” for the response of the Colombian government to the protest that issued his country. The Santa Rosa Island is near the triple border between Peru, Brazil and Colombia, on the Amazon River, and houses some 3,000 people who are mainly dedicated to trade.
With EFE information
