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Colonial inheritance leaves clash of national narratives

Latin America has a history of border disputes, but good fences are making for better neighbours

In the 19th century, newly independent Latin American states inherited borders imposed by colonial powers. Disputes over territory ensued, often leading to war. However, there are now signs that conflict resolution has found a better path.

by Romain Droog 
Latin America's contested borders

Latin America’s contested borders

The Colombian archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina is home to the Afro-Caribbean Raizal people, whose main source of income has traditionally been fishing. This April, they had to hang up their nets when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the islands lie in enclaves within Nicaragua’s territorial waters.

San Andrés is just the latest in a series of border disputes in Latin America: of 18 cases pending or being heard at the ICJ, nearly a third concern the region. Besides ideological, social and cultural interests, national communities are often united by external threats — such as territorial disputes with their neighbours.

On paper at least, the principles for defining borders once seemed clear. When Latin American countries gained independence (most between 1810 and 1821), the boundaries of the newly decolonised territories were largely preserved intact under the Roman legal principle of uti possidetis juris. For instance, the new Empire of Brazil adopted the borders agreed by Spain and Portugal under the 1750 Treaty of Madrid.

Under the same principle, countries newly independent from Spain preserved the boundaries they had had as administrative units of the Spanish empire. For instance, part of the territory of the Royal Audience of Quito became Ecuador, and a section of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata became Argentina. These young republics, led by new creole elites, did not completely dismantle the institutional (and social) structures of their former masters.

What land belongs to whom?

But uti possidetis juris soon created problems. Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and most of present-day Ecuador, pursuing Simón Bolivar’s vision of a unified Latin America, remained a single entity, the state of Greater Colombia, before splitting up in 1831. Argentina, torn between the divergent interests of its capital and provinces, fractured into several different entities before (...)

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Romain Droog

Romain Droog is an economic advisor at the Embassy of Argentina in Brussels and a journalist with the Nouveaux Espaces Latinos association. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Embassy of Argentina in Brussels or the government of the Argentine Republic.
Translated by Charles Goulden

(1Tewfik Aclimandos, ‘De l’armée égyptienne: Éléments d’interprétation du “grand récit” d’un acteur-clé du paysage national’ (Some elements to interpret the ‘Great Narrative’ of a key player on the national stage), Revue Tiers Monde, no 222, Paris, 2015.

(2See Éva Thiébaud, ‘Little Sparta: the growing power of the UAE’, Le Monde diplomatique, English edition, March 2021.

(3Erin Doherty and Dave Lawler, ‘Kushner calls MBS “visionary leader” who has made the world better’, Axios, 13 February 2024, www.axios.com/.

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