The region known as Cabeça do Cachorro (''Dog‘s head'') is the area comprising the northwesternmost end of the state of Amazonas,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, bordering on

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. This region roughly coincides with the Brazilian municipality of

São Gabriel da Cachoeira São Gabriel da Cachoeira (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Saint Gabriel of the Waterfall'') is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality located on the northern shore of the Rio Negro (Amazon), Rio Negro River, in the region of Cabeça do Ca ...

and parts of

Japurá Japurá is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality located in the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas. Its population was 2,251 (2020) and its area is 55,791 km² (21541 Mi2). It forms the Japurá Micror ...

, and shares international borders with the

n state of Amazonas (to the northeast), and the

n departments of Guainía (to north), Vaupés (to west) and Amazonas (to southwest). The

Brazilian Army The Brazilian Army (; EB) is the branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible, externally, for defending the country in eminently terrestrial operations and, internally, for guaranteeing law, order and the constitutional branches, subordina ...

maintains a border platoon next to the border tripoint, at the village of Cucuí, where there is also a

Brazilian Air Force The Brazilian Air Force (, FAB) is the air branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces and one of the three national uniformed services. The FAB was formed when the Brazilian Brazilian Army Aviation (1919–1941), Army and Brazilian Naval Aviation, Nav ...

base. ''Cabeça do Cachorro'' means, literally, ''"Dog's Head"'' in Portuguese. The name was given after the shape of this region's map, that resembles the head of a dog with its mouth wide open. This picturesque geographical shape was defined by the Treaty of Bogotá, which was signed by Colombia and Brazil in 1907 and defined the borders between the two countries according to the

uti possidetis ''Uti possidetis'' is an expression that originated in Roman private law, where it was the name of a procedure about possession of land. Later, by a misleading analogy, it was transferred to international law, where it has had more than one mean ...

criterion. These borders were later confirmed by a supplementary Colombian-Brazilian treaty in 1928. The area has several

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

reservations. The municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in Cabeça do Cachorro, is the first in Brazil to adopt an Amerindian language, Nheengatu, as co-official with Portuguese. The region also has one of the largest

niobium Niobium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Nb (formerly columbium, Cb) and atomic number 41. It is a light grey, crystalline, and Ductility, ductile transition metal. Pure niobium has a Mohs scale of mineral hardness, Mohs h ...

reserves in the world.

External links

Geodesic points of the border between Brazil and Colombia
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20081028042607/http://www.info.lncc.br/wrmkkk/cohist.html Fronteira Brasil-Colômbia: Breve Histórico(in Portuguese)
Tratado de Bogotá, 21 de abril de 1907
(in Portuguese) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cabeca Do Cachorro Ecoregions of Brazil North Region, Brazil Regions of South America

See also

External links