Peruvian president Dina Boluarte said on Friday that she would not give up “not a single centimeter“Carré of the island of Santa Rosa claimed by Colombia on the Amazon river, during a trip on site.
“The island of Chineria and its district of Santa Rosa are as Peruvian as the potatoes and the Machu Picchu“, Ensured the manager from the central place of the island, more than a thousand kilometers from Lima, in a speech broadcast on television.”We will not give up a single centimeter of our territory“She said alongside high officers of the army.
Colombia and Peru are engaged in a dispute concerning the delimitation of their territory along the Amazon, whose course changes frequently, creating new islands. Peru considers that Santa Rosa was born from the lowering of the Amazon level and constitutes an extension of the island of Chineria, which belongs to Peru. Its population, of nearly 3000 inhabitants, is Peruvian, according to Lima.
The island of Chineria is located at the northeast end of Peru, not far from the border junction between Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Lima argues that its border with Colombia was established by international treaties a century ago. But for Bogota, the island appeared after their signature and has never been attributed to one or the other country.
The controversy dates back to 2024, when Lima presented a protest note to Bogota after a Colombian official described the Peruvian presence on the island of “irregular occupation“.
Tension rose last week when Colombian President Gustavo Petro challenged Peru’s sovereignty on the island and a Colombian military plane flew over it.
