The scenarios in which Colombia would be committed to access to the Amazonas River

President Gustavo Petro considered that the claim to Peru for the possession of an island on the Amazonas River It will be A long process that can end in international courts and denied that it is a political strategy to the legislative and presidential elections of 2026.

(See: Peru’s government accused Colombia of aerial incursion on Santa Rosa Island).

“This process is longer than what happens today and will exceed the government. These steps take months; And if we reach a stage of an international demand, then years, as happened as San Andrés“said the president in an interview with the newspaper The spectator in which he compared the current dispute with the one that was had with Nicaragua in the International Court of Justice (CIJ) by the Caribbean archipelago of San Andrés.

Petro, who last Tuesday, August 5 accused Peru of appropriating “A territory that is from Colombia“On the Amazon river, he visited, during the commemoration of August 7, the city of Leticia, bordering with Peru, where he said:”Colombia does not recognize the sovereignty of Peru on the so -called Santa Rosa Island and ignores de facto authorities imposed in the area“

(See: Peru clarifies to Colombia that there is nothing to talk about sovereignty of Amazon Island).

Petro’s position has caused a hard response from the Peruvian government, who affirmed that “There is no discussion“On his sovereignty in the Amazon District of Santa Rosa de Loreto, inhabited by citizens and Peruvian authorities.

Colombia and Peru signed in 1922 a treaty established by the Amazonas River as a boundary between the two countries and subsequently the islands that correspond to each one were assigned, but The changes in the course of the river have allowed the appearance of new islands whose ownership has not been defined, which is what Colombia claims in this case.

Peruvian military in Santa Rosa de Loreto.

AFP

Committed Colombian access to Amazonas

According to Petro, “Colombia is seeing its access to the Amazonas river disappear“Because with the changes of your channel, Santa Rosa Island and Chinería “They have been hitting” in a kind of bridge that can leave Leticia, capital of the Colombian department of Amazonas, isolated from the river at the point where a triple border is formed with the Brazilian city of Tabatinga.

(See: How Peruvian is Santa Rosa? This is life on the Amazon Island that Colombia asks for).

“So, that is a strategic loss, and it is not any loss; It is not the loss of an island as they want to doR, “Petro added in the interview in which he pointed out that”The now is triggered by the unilateral fact of Peru“To declare” as Peruvian territory, through a Peruvian law, what is called Isla Santa Rosa “.

For the president, the claim to Peru must have made “In 2017 and with the president of that time (Juan Manuel Santos) “But as that did not happen,” the time that has passed has deteriorated the possibilities of a common negotiation. “

“The Treaty of Rio de Janeiro (1934) establishes an instance of bilateral consultation that was designed precisely for these types of problems. The emergence of islands, due to the movements of the river, makes a kind of mobile border and, therefore, the need for an agreement every time a problem appears. That was not done in 2017“He said

In his speech on August 7 in Leticia, Petro expressed Colombia’s disposition to reactivate the Permanent Mixed Commission for the Inspection of the Colombo-Peruana Frontera (Comperif) And he confirmed that he received an invitation from the Peruvian government to participate in a meeting of this agency on September 11 and 12 in Lima.

(See: Santa Rosa, the small island that unleashed impasted between Colombia and Peru).

Petro rejected the criticisms that have been made even in his own country by those who consider that the flag of sovereignty and territorial defense is stirring for electoral purposes.

“This has nothing to do with elections in Colombia or issues in Colombia“said the president, and reiterated that The cause of his claim is the decision of the Peruvian Congress on June 12, which approved the creation of the Santa Rosa district, Until that time part of the Peruvian municipality of Yavarí, in the Amazon Department of Loreto.