721.23/1149: Telegram
The Colombian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Urdaneta Arbelaez) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:18 p.m.]
His Excellency, the Secretary of State: I have the honor to advise Your Excellency of the following occurrences. Today at 10 a.m., General Alfredo Vasquez Cobo, Commander of the Colombian Expedition which was sailing through the waters of the Putumayo River in the direction of Colombian territory with the sole purpose of reestablishing the authorities deposed there by an act of violence committed on the first of September last, transmitted to the commander of the forces which are improperly occupying our territory at the place called Tarapacá, the following communication:
“I inform you that I come in the name of Colombia to restore order in that territory which has always legally belonged to us and the boundaries of which are specified in a treaty. I therefore advise you that if delivery of the territory is peacefully effected all the inhabitants thereof will have guarantees as to their lives and interests and the natives will, as always, find in Colombia a positive aid for their moral and material prosperity. It would be a matter of great regret for me to be obliged to occupy Tarapacá by other than pacific means. It will not be my forces that will fire the first shot, so that the blame for the blood that may be shed in this fratricidal strife may fall upon those who are acting without justice or right, but I warn you that I and the forces under my command are determined to enforce respect for our right, and for promises made, and to hoist again on the hills of Tarapacá the glorious Colombian flag. A. Vasquez Cobo.”
The reply to the foregoing communication was an air attack carried out by several planes of the Peruvian Army, which dropped bombs on our vessels, although they had not yet passed the boundary line between Brazil and Colombia, some of the bombs having fallen in Brazilian waters. Our boats continued to advance toward the zone of the river that is clearly Colombian on both banks and from there they replied with their artillery to the fire of the Peruvian airplanes and a duel began between the latter and our boats. At that moment a Colombian air flotilla coming from the base at La Pedrera on the Caquetá River reached the scene of combat and put the Peruvian airplanes to flight. In the name of my Government, I must call the attention of Your Excellency’s Government to the very significant circumstances under which the attack on our expedition was made, while it was sailing through Brazilian waters toward the Putumayo River zone, included within the Tabatinga-Apaporis and Yaguas-Atacuari lines, where the waters and their two banks are clearly Colombian, and while it was 81 kilometers from the nearest point of the territory of Peru.