Colombia and Peru traded barbs and reiterated competing claims to a remote Amazon River island home to fewer than 3,000 people, with Bogota accusing its neighbor on Thursday of effectively annexing the area.
The South American nations have feuded for decades over the delineation of their border in the Amazon River, where the shifting course complicates demarcation.
Santa Rosa Island lies in the tri-border area between Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
Peru insists it owns the area, calling it an extension of Chineria Island, formed when water levels in the Amazon dropped.
In July, Peru formally created the district of Santa Rosa and sent officials to the area.
But Colombia disputes the claim, with the government branding Peru’s presence on the island “irregular occupation,” and calling for a binational commission to settle the matter.
“Colombia does not recognize Peru’s sovereignty over the so-called Santa Rosa Island and does not recognize the de facto authorities imposed in the area,” President Gustavo Petro said Thursday in a speech in the Amazonian city of Leticia, near the disputed island.
Earlier in the week, on social media, he accused Peru of “appropriating” land that belongs to Colombia.
Peru’s Prime Minister Eduardo Arana responded from Santa Rosa, where he traveled on Thursday.
“We categorically reject these remarks that deny Peruvian sovereignty,” Arana told reporters.
Lima’s foreign minister Elmer Schialer said Petro “has no legal, historical or geographical reason (to make those remarks).”
“Santa Rosa Island is not a new islet. It has been part of Peruvian territory, recognized for more than a century,” he told the Canal N television channel.
Under a 1922 treaty, the border is set at the deepest point of the river.
But the water flow has plunged alongside an extreme South American drought in recent years, raising concerns in Colombia about access to the world’s biggest river by volume.
Lima maintains that Santa Rosa’s roughly 3,000 inhabitants have always been Peruvian, a claim Walter Rubio, a 43-year-old fisherman and island resident, was mostly inclined to agree with.
“We practice Peruvian patriotism,” he told AFP. “But we want to seek solidarity among the three borders.”
The issue is set to be discussed at a bilateral technical meeting on border issues in mid-September, advanced from an initial date in October.
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