War of Words Erupts Between Colombia and Peru Over Island in Amazon

No one can agree on who started the fight.

Was it Peru, which passed a law last month declaring the island a Peruvian district?

Was it Colombia, whose president claimed that Peru had “seized” its land?

Did it start in earnest when Peru sent soldiers to the island this week to raise the national flag? Or when Colombia’s president landed in the region on Thursday to lay claim to the island, with his defense minister and a small cadre of military cadets in tow?

A war of words is playing out between Colombia and Peru as the countries’ presidents — both sagging in popularity at the end of their terms — battle over which nation owns a tiny island in the Amazon River, Santa Rosa de Yavarí, population 3,000.

Mr. Petro denies the allegations and maintains his fight for the island is about something bigger: preserving Colombia’s principal access to the vital Amazon River.

His counterpart in Peru, Dina Boluarte, has faced allegations that she received Rolex watches as bribes, abandoned her post for cosmetic surgery and is responsible for human rights violations, among other accusations she denies. With her approval ratings in recent polls around 3 percent, she, too, could use a national distraction.

Mr. Petro took the step of flying deep into of the Amazon rainforest on Thursday to argue his country’s case for ownership to the island. “Colombia does not recognize Peru’s sovereignty over the so-called Santa Rosa Island!” he declared after landing in the Colombian city of Leticia, just minutes by boat from the island. “We have to defend our nation.”

On Thursday night, Ms. Boluarte, on a state trip to Asia, shot back. The island, her government said, “belongs fully to Peruvian territory and has been under national sovereignty for more than a century.”

There is nothing, she said, to resolve with Colombia.

The island in question is more than a thousand miles from the two nations’ capitals, Bogotá and Lima. Cradled by the Amazon River, it sits at a triple border shared by Colombia, Peru and Brazil. The region is a jumping-off point for tourists looking to explore the Amazon forest and a hub for regional commerce (including a flourishing illicit drug industry). Communities in the region are so deeply connected to the river — which functions as a sort of highway — that they are often called “amphibious.”

Until recent decades, Santa Rosa de Yavarí did not even exist as a separate island; it formed at least 50 years ago as the Amazon River shifted. It is one of several fluvial islands in the area, created as the massive river has meandered, depositing sediment and eroding banks.

The island’s appearance might in fact be the true origin of the dispute.

The treaty that defines the border between Colombia and Peru was signed a century ago. A war between the two ensued, and then another treaty. So for years since the island emerged, tensions have simmered over who can legally claim the land.

Over the last few decades another important change has taken place: The course of the Amazon River has moved gradually toward the Peruvian side, and researchers have said that Colombia could lose its main physical connection to the river — an economic lifeline and critical part of the national identity — in as little as five years.

Ms. Boluarte claimed on Thursday that Santa Rosa de Yavarí is actually part of a larger island to the north, called Chinería, which both nations agree belongs to Peru. A thin channel of water now separates them.

Culturally, the island of Santa Rosa de Yavarí is Peruvian, said its most recent mayor, Iván Yovera. It houses local offices of Peru’s tax, migrations and customs agencies, as well as a station belonging to the Peruvian national police and barracks belonging to the Peruvian military.

The people of the island drink Peruvian beer (Pilsen), he added, eat Peruvian food (ceviche) and sing the Peruvian national anthem. They began arriving there in the 1960s, Mr. Yovera said, mostly from a nearby Peruvian town.

“We’re Peruvian,” he said. “We’re Peruvian until our death.”

In July, Ms. Boluarte signed into law a declaration that made Santa Rosa de Yavarí a district in the Peruvian province of Loreto, calling it Santa Rosa de Loreto.

The elevation from a village to an official district was meant to help the community secure more public resources, according to a statement from Congress.

But Mr. Petro, the Colombian leader, saw the new law as a provocation. He began posting on X about the island early this month: “The Peruvian government has seized a territory that belongs to Colombia.”

Soon, he declared that he would be commemorating a major battle of Colombia’s war of independence against Spain in the city of Leticia, right next to Santa Rosa, saying that his country must not lose access to the river.

In an interview in a hotel in Leticia on Thursday, Mr. Petro said his fight was “not about elections in Colombia or internal questions in Colombia.” Instead, he took issue with the “unilateral” decision by Peru to claim the island without negotiating with Colombia.

A 1934 treaty, he asserted, required the two nations to come to an agreement about who owns new islands — and that never happened, he added. (Peru disputes his interpretation of the treaty.)

The river has gradually moved farther into Peru, he acknowledged, and the sliver of water that is between Santa Rosa de Yavarí and Colombia has begun filling with sediment.

If the island is officially declared Peruvian and then the channel disappears, creating a land border between a Peruvian Santa Rosa and Colombia, his nation could lose its main port on the Amazon River — possibly forever.

“We do not want to separate from the Amazon,” he said. “That is a strategic loss.”

On Thursday in Leticia, he tried to rally Colombian support for claiming the island, standing with ministers and cabinet members on a white stage, before a white church, wearing a traditional white shirt called a guayabera.

Military cadets, also in white, some holding bayonets, stood in the sun in front of him, sweating as he spoke for nearly an hour and a half, repeatedly mentioning the importance of defending Colombian territory.

Hundreds of supporters gathered in front of him, shouting, “Petro! Petro!” at regular intervals. Many declared themselves die-hard fans of the president, who is the country’s first leftist leader and came into office promising to help the poor.

But in interviews, a half-dozen of them said they were perplexed by his claim to Santa Rosa.

“I think he’s wrong,” said Marilyn Navarro, 58, a Colombian who voted for Mr. Petro. Since she was born, she said, she has been taught who the island belongs. “To the president we say with all our hearts: Santa Rosa belongs to Peru.”

Ms. Navarro lives in Leticia and is the president of a neighborhood council. She said she feared the diplomatic fight could complicate things for her community if it deepened, because many of the staples of the local diet — beans, plantains, onions, yuca — come to Leticia from Peru at prices far cheaper than goods from Colombia.

Mr. Petro, the Colombian president, said in the interview that he did not have any immediate plans to visit the island of Santa Rosa de Yavarí.

“That would be an act of war,” he said, “and I still want to avoid a war.”