Unloading boats on the dock at Leticia, Colombia, the place the Amazon river has slowly retreated.
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LETICIA, Colombia — The jungle city of Leticia supplies Colombia’s solely entry to the Amazon River. However because the river modifications course the city might quickly be left excessive and dry and that is fueling a border dispute with neighboring Peru.
Drought, sedimentation and meandering by the world’s second largest river are step by step pushing the waterway farther south into Peru and away from Colombia. A Colombian Navy research predicts that inside 5 years, Letica may very well be landlocked.
Alarmed residents level out that, though Leticia has an airport, there aren’t any highways connecting this city of 55,000 folks on the southern-most tip of Colombia to every other area of the nation. Most meals and different provides arrive right here by way of Amazon River boats from Peru and Brazil.
Santiago Duque, a biology professor on the Leticia department of Colombia’s Nationwide College
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“We rely on each day commerce between the three international locations to outlive,” says Santiago Duque, a biology professor on the Leticia department of Colombia’s Nationwide College. “The river is important.”
The realm round Leticia is named the “triple frontier” as a result of the river kinds the border with Peru whereas the Brazilian city of Tabatinga lies subsequent door. Vacationers, boat pilots, and customers from all three international locations, talking English, Spanish and Portuguese, come and go as they please.
A neighborhood adage holds that folks right here breakfast in Colombia, lunch in Peru and have dinner in Brazil.
Avenue indicators in Leticia, Colombia on the intersection of three international locations.
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However the good-neighbor vibe is beginning to bitter as Colombia frets about river entry. Because the water recedes, Leticia’s cargo wharf has been prolonged a number of instances to succeed in the river. However throughout dry season it sits on dry land, rendering forklifts and different equipment ineffective.
On a current morning, sweaty employees unloaded cargo boats by hand, carrying crates of beer, sacks of rice, and luggage of flour on their shoulders 100 yards up the muddy riverbank to vehicles ready on the wharf. All this slows commerce and drives up prices.
“It is like going again to the 18th century,” says Sigifredo Beltrán, a Leticia businessman and lodge proprietor.
Off loading items on the port of Leticia, Colombia
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For many years, Colombian officers ignored the issue. However that modified in July amid a dispute with Peru over a tiny island referred to as Santa Rosa that lies within the Amazon River a couple of hundred yards throughout the water from Leticia.
The Peru-Colombia border was fastened beneath a 1922 treaty. However Santa Rosa fashioned in 1974 and has by no means been formally allotted to both nation. About 3,000 Peruvians stay there but Colombia additionally claims the island.
When Peru’s congress all of the sudden upgraded Santa Rosa’s standing from village to city, giving it a bigger authorities presence, Colombia President Gustavo Petro flew to Leticia to protest. In a speech, Petro insisted: “Colombia doesn’t acknowledge Peruvian sovereignty over Santa Rosa.”
Then, in a weird stunt, Daniel Quintero, a Colombian presidential candidate, posted a video of himself sneaking onto Santa Rosa and elevating a yellow-blue-and-red Colombian flag, and declaring: “That is Colombian territory.” With quarter-hour, Peruvian authorities took it down.
Whipping up nationalist sentiment is a typical apply for politicians who know that territorial disputes stay a sore spot for Colombians. Probably the most notorious case was Panama, which was a Colombian province. Then, in 1903. the U.S. authorities fomented a revolution so it might construct the Panama Canal.
Welcome to Santa Rosa signal, the tiny island within the Amazon River that is the topic of a dispute between Colombia and neighboring Peru.
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Colombia and Peru have usually wrangled over their frontier. The truth is, Leticia was established by the Peruvian navy within the 1800s and takes its identify from the girlfriend of one in all its founding fathers. The city then switched arms to present Colombia entry to the Amazon River, however Peruvians protested and in 1932 the 2 sides fought a short border struggle.
The tiny island of Santa Rosa within the Amazon river – that is the topic of a dispute between Colombia and neighboring Peru.
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As for Santa Rosa, specialists say that each nations have legit claims to the island.
The 1922 border treaty states that the deepest channel of the Amazon River is the frontier, with Colombia to the north and Peru to the south. When Santa Rosa fashioned, the deepest channel ran north of the island making it Peruvian.
However the river has shifted and divided and now a smaller department of the Amazon flows previous Leticia. Its deepest channel runs south of Santa Rosa, which might again up Colombia’s declare to the island, says Walter Arévalo, a world regulation professor at Rosario College in Bogotá.
He says disputes over riverine borders are widespread. For instance, Belgium and the Netherlands maintain talks each few years about newly fashioned islands and modifications in course the Meuse River that kinds a part of their border. He stated Colombia and Peru ought to comply with their instance.
“The best scenario could be for each international locations to take full benefit of the river,” Arévalo stated.
Within the Eighties, Colombia and Peru fashioned a bilateral border fee. It had been dormant however amid the present dispute, the fee has scheduled conferences for Lima, the Peruvian capital, on Sept. 11 and 12.
Flor Gomez, fisherwoman who lives on the tiny Amazon Island of Santa Rosa
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Colombia might have prevented the specter of a landlocked Leticia had dredged the smaller department of the Amazon River that now flows previous the city. However dredging is pricey and Duque, the college professor, says Colombian politicians pay little consideration to this area due to its sparse populated.
In Santa Rosa, the place an enormous red-and-white Peruvian flag greets guests, residents are proudly Peruvian. However they don’t seem to be spoiling for a combat. Lodge supervisor Iván Yovera says islanders usually store, ship their youngsters to highschool and get medical care within the a lot bigger Leticia.
Max Ortiz, the appearing mayor of Santa Rosa
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“We have by no means had issues” with Colombia,” provides fisherwoman Flor Gómez, as she leans over the wood balcony of her home. “We’re like brothers.
Max Ortiz, the appearing mayor of Santa Rosa, predicts border disputes will preserve cropping up because of the ever-changing move of the Amazon River. He quips: “That is Mom Nature.”
