- Peru has asserted direct control over Santa Rosa Island with district status, flag-raisings and state missions, prompting Colombia to accuse Lima of 'appropriating' territory and breaching historic treaties
- Locals say the quarrel belongs to politicians, not communities, who depend on cross-border trade
SANTA ROSA, Peru
By the time Sergio Galindo glides his motorboat to the muddy banks of Santa Rosa Island, the 62-year-old boatman has traversed international waters separating three sovereign nations in 10 minutes flat.
Along this remote seam of the Amazon River where Peru, Colombia, and Brazil meet, languages, currencies, and cultures converge, making international borders feel as fluid as the river that cuts through them.
“There’s a mix here between our three countries. We eat Peruvian food, we buy Brazilian products. Our economies are all tied together,” said Galindo, a Colombian national.
With over five decades ferrying passengers across these waters, Galindo has witnessed the Amazon River change course, and even give rise to the island where he is currently docked – a sliver of land that did not exist in his childhood.
Shape-shifting island
More than a thousand kilometers from either Lima or Bogota, the tiny island of Santa Rosa de Yavari lies between Peru’s remote eastern Amazon and the Colombian port city of Leticia, in the country’s south.
Home to roughly 3,000 people, Santa Rosa has recently become the focus of a territorial rift between the two nations, raising questions of sovereignty, river access, and the flow of commerce along the Earth’s largest river.
That is why Colombian officials are watching the Amazon’s shifting currents with concern. As the river reshapes the bank, it threatens to erase Colombia’s principal access to the waterway here, critical in moving commerce and people throughout the Amazon basin.
Just across the river in Colombia, at Leticia’s main port, the region’s interwoven economies are on full display. Vendors sell Peruvian-grown fruits and vegetables, Brazilian grains, and fish hauled in from the shared waters of the Amazon. Severed from Colombia’s interior, affordable access to staple products is heavily dependent on cross-border trade and river access.
Shaded from the scalding midday sun, Marta Venaga sells socks, underwear, and T-shirts under an umbrella.
“We share a border. We should be united like brothers. We can't fight about an island that belongs to no one,” said Venaga, 48. “We’re dealing with the whims of a river. No one owns the Amazon River, and no one can control it,” she added.
The Amazon River’s course is gradually changing. Indifferent to international borders, in recent decades, it has meandered toward Peru, reducing volume and flow on the Colombian side, while depositing more sediment, which has resulted in the slow formation of a land border here.
Researchers and the Colombian Navy have warned that Colombia could lose its main access to the river within five years, a shift that would impact the region’s economy and national identity, both of which are deeply tied to the Amazon.
The question of sovereignty over the island has provoked territorial posturing by both nations recently. Last July, Peruvian lawmakers declared Santa Rosa de Yavari a national district, renaming it Santa Rosa of Loreto after the Peruvian department they claim it belongs to. District status has unlocked greater access to state resources, according to Peruvian authorities.
During a state visit in August, Peru’s former President Dina Boluarte asserted the island was “as Peruvian as Machu Picchu,” referring to the country's famed archeological site and a popular tourist attraction, as soldiers raised the nation’s red and white flag.
In response, Colombia’s left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, made a state visit to Leticia, accusing Peru of “appropriating” territory and breaching the 1934 Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, an accord signed by both nations which set an international border at the Amazon River’s deepest channel.
Back on Santa Rosa Island, the Peruvian state has sought to put to rest any doubt of the island’s sovereignty.
'Santa Rosa more Peruvian than the potato'
On a recent morning, the Peruvian Air Force coordinated a civic mission on the island, flying doctors and specialists in from Lima and the departmental capital, Iquitos, to provide medical attention to the region’s children and the elderly.
The state’s robust presence along this stretch of its Amazon border stands in contrast to its historically neglected frontiers, where illicit economies like drug-trafficking and illegal mining have flourished in recent years.
Dispelling any doubt about Santa Rosa’s status, Maj. Julio Cesar Pinedo, who helped coordinate the operation, was unequivocal. “Of course Santa Rosa is Peruvian territory,” he told Anadolu.
Reluctant to discuss the political friction between the two countries, Pinedo said the current operation was part of a broader strategy to reinforce the state’s presence along this remote border.
“These are political issues we’re not involved in. Our mission is to bring aid and maintain a connection between the government and the population,” said Pinedo.
Not far, in a sweltering municipal office in the center of Santa Rosa Island, recently elected district mayor, Max Ortiz, sat behind a desk looking over a map of the region.
“Mr. Petro came to the border speaking falsehoods. Santa Rosa is more Peruvian than the potato,” he said, invoking a common idiom in Peru to describe something as quintessentially Peruvian.
Ortiz referenced the Soloman-Lozano Treaty, signed in 1922 by both nations, which many here interpret as having fixed Santa Rosa Island to the Peruvian side of the channel.
Beyond antiquated treaties, Ortiz pointed to a long list of Peruvian state institutions on the island, including the national police, customs, a national bank, municipal offices, “and ceviche,” nodding to the national dish central to Peruvian culinary identity.
“If Colombia loses access to the Amazon, we can come to an agreement. We’re not bad people. We’ve never had problems with our neighbors. We live in peace with them,” said Ortiz. “Petro is the one causing problems.”
The dispute over Santa Rosa Island has served as a political foil for both presidents. Peru’s recent territorial grandstanding on the island unfolded amid deepening corruption and insecurity, culminating in the impeachment of Boluarte in October.
In Colombia, Petro’s government has reeled from corruption allegations and fraying relations with the US over alleged drug-trafficking.
After US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, US President Donald Trump said a military operation targeting Colombia “sounds good to me.” Trump and Petro then spoke over the phone, and are supposed to meet at the White House in February.
Crossing the Amazon River back into Colombian territory, Venaga, the clothing vendor, tended to Peruvian customers visiting the island for the day.
“This is a problem between politicians, not the people who live here. We’re fighting over an island that doesn’t have potable water or electricity,” said Venaga. “We share a border. That means we should be united like brothers.”
