Petro Accuses Peru of Grabbing Disputed Amazon Island, Sparks Diplomatic Tensions

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is accusing Peru of trying to quietly annex a disputed island in the Amazon River, warning that the move could threaten Colombia’s sovereignty and the future of a key port city.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Petro slammed Peru’s recent decision to designate the island of Santa Rosa as part of its Loreto province.

“The Peruvian government has just appropriated it by law,” he wrote, calling the move a “unilateral” land grab.

The island — a patch of jungle and farmland that’s home to fewer than 1,000 people — has long been a blurry spot on the map between the two countries. Now, it’s suddenly in the spotlight.

Petro says Peru’s claim could cut off access to the Amazon River for Leticia, a Colombian city of nearly 60,000 that relies heavily on river trade and tourism. “This could make Leticia disappear as an Amazonian port, taking away its commercial life,” he warned.

The diplomatic row comes after Peru’s Congress voted in June to officially classify Santa Rosa as a district — something Colombian officials say ignores nearly a century of unresolved border disagreements.

Peru points to treaties from the 1920s and says it’s been administering the island for decades. Colombia counters that Santa Rosa didn’t even exist when the treaties were signed — it only emerged later as the river shifted and sediments built up.

Colombian officials argue the boundary between the two countries is supposed to run along the deepest part of the river — and that Santa Rosa lies on their side of that line.

“New islands have appeared north of the deepest line, and Peru just claimed them as theirs by law,” Petro wrote.

He also made it clear this wasn’t just about cartography.

“Our government will resort to diplomacy to defend our national sovereignty,” he said, announcing plans to celebrate Colombian independence in Leticia this Thursday — a symbolic move aimed at reinforcing the country’s presence in the region.

Officials in Lima say turning Santa Rosa into a district was simply about getting the community access to federal funding and the ability to collect local taxes. They insist the move complies with international law and existing treaties.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s Foreign Ministry has also weighed in, calling for renewed talks and bilateral cooperation to settle the status of the river’s ever-changing landscape.

“Santa Rosa Island has not been allocated to Peru,” the ministry said.

And that may be the heart of the issue: the Amazon doesn’t sit still. Its powerful currents constantly shape and reshape the land, carving out new islands and swallowing others. Santa Rosa is one of those islands — a relatively new addition to the map, and now a fresh point of friction in a very old dispute.