Shifting Amazon River puts Colombia’s only port in jeopardy : NPR
Unloading boats on the Quai de Leticia, Colombia, where the Amazon river slowly withdrew.
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Leticia, Colombia – The City of the Jungle of Leticia offers the only access of Colombia to the Amazon river. But as the river changes its course, the city could soon be left high and dry and it feeds a border dispute with neighboring Peru.
Dryness, sedimentation and meander by the second largest river in the world gradually push the navigable path further to Peru and far from Colombia. A study by the Colombian navy predicts that within five years, Letica could be landlocked.
Alarmed residents point out that, although Leticia has an airport, there are no highways connecting this city of 55,000 people to the most southern row of Colombia to any other region of the country. Most foods and other supplies arrive here via boats from the Amazon river in Peru and Brazil.
Santiago Duque, professor of biology at the Leticia branch of the National University of Colombia
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“We depend on the daily trade between the three countries to survive,” explains Santiago Duque, professor of biology at the Leticia branch of the National University of Colombia. “The river is essential.”
The area around Leticia is known as the “triple border” because the river forms the border with Peru while the Brazilian city of Tabatanga is next to it. Tourists, boats and buyers of the three countries, speaking English, Spanish and Portuguese, come and go as they wish.
A local adage maintains that people from breakfast here in Colombia, lunch in Peru and dine in Brazil.
Street signs in Leticia, Colombia, at the intersection of three countries.
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But the atmosphere of the good neighbor begins to turn while Colombia is concerned about access to the rivers. While the water is retreating, the Leticia cargo quay has been extended several times to reach the river. But during the dry season, he is on dry land, making the forklifts and other unnecessary machines.
One recent morning, sweaty workers have unloaded cargo cargo on hand, carrying boxes of beer, bags of rice and bags of flour on their shoulders 100 meters in the muddy river towards trucks waiting for the platform. All of this slows the trade and increases costs.
“It’s like returning to the 18th century,” said Sigifredo Beltrán, a businessman from Leticia and a hotel owner.
Out of charge on the port of Leticia, Colombia,
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For decades, Colombian officials have ignored the problem. But that changed in July in the middle of a dispute with Peru on a small island called Santa Rosa which is in the Amazon river a few hundred meters through the water of Leticia.
The border of Peru-Colombia was set under a 1922 treaty. But Santa Rosa was formed in 1974 and has never been officially allocated to one or the other country. About 3,000 Peruvians live there, but Colombia also claims the island.
When the Peru Congress suddenly improved the status of Santa Rosa from the village in town, which gives it a greater government presence, Colombian President Gustavo Petro flew to Leticia to protest. In a speech, Petro insisted: “Colombia does not recognize Peruvian sovereignty over Santa Rosa.”
Then, in a bizarre waterfall, Daniel Quintero, a candidate for the Colombian presidential election, posted a video of himself sneaking on Santa Rosa and raising a blue and red Colombian flag, and declaring: “It is a Colombian territory.” With 15 minutes, the Peruvian authorities shot him.
The nationalist feeling is a common practice for politicians who know that territorial conflicts remain a painful place for Colombians. The most sadly famous case was Panama, which was once a Colombian province. Then, in 1903. The American government gave birth to a revolution so that it could build the Panama canal.
Welcome to Santa Rosa Sign, the small island of the Amazon river which is the subject of a dispute between Colombia and neighboring Peru.
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Colombia and Peru have often fought on their border. In fact, Leticia was established by the Peruvian army in the 1800s and took its name from the girlfriend of one of its founding fathers. The city then changed their hands to give Colombia access to the Amazon river, but the Peruvians protested and in 1932, the two parties fought a brief border war.
The small island of Santa Rosa in the Amazon river – this is the subject of a dispute between Colombia and neighboring Peru.
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As for Santa Rosa, experts say that the two nations have legitimate affirmations on the island.
The 1922 border treaty indicates that the deepest canal of the Amazon river is the border, with Colombia in the north and Peru in the South. When Santa Rosa formed, the deepest channel ran north of the island, which makes him Peruvian.
But the river has changed and divided and now a small branch of the Amazon passes in front of Leticia. Its deepest channel takes place south of Santa Rosa, which would support Colombia ‘demand on the island, explains Walter Arévalo, professor of international law at Rosario University in Bogotá.
He says that litigation on river boundaries are common. For example, Belgium and the Netherlands are held every few years on the newly formed islands and the current changes of the Meuse river which are part of their border. He said Colombia and Peru should follow their example.
“The ideal situation would be for the two countries to take full advantage of the river,” said Arévalo.
In the 1980s, Colombia and Peru formed a bilateral border commission. He was sleeping but in the middle of the current dispute, the commission provided meetings for Lima, the Peruvian capital, on September 11 and 12.
Flor Gomez, fisherman who lives on the small Amazon island of Santa Rosa
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Colombia could have avoided the spectrum of a Linen without a linen had flooded the smallest branch of the Amazon river which now passes in front of the city. But the dredging is expensive and duque, the university professor, says that Colombian politicians pay little attention to this region because of its little populated.
In Santa Rosa, where a huge red and white Peruvian flag welcomes visitors, the residents are proudly Peruvian. But they don’t spoil for a fight. The director of the hotel, Iván Yovera, says that islanders often shop, send their children to school and get medical care in the much larger Leticia.
Max Ortiz, the acting mayor of Santa Rosa
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“We have never had any problems” with Colombia, “adds fishermen Flori Gómez, while leaning on the wooden balcony of her house.” We are like brothers.
Max Ortiz, the acting mayor of Santa Rosa, predicts the border disputes will continue to arise due to the constantly evolving flow of the Amazon river. He quips: “It is Mother Nature.”
