A vast region of 3,000 km² at Serra de Ibiapaba is claimed by the

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 ...

ian

states State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is the List of Brazilian states by population, eighth-largest Brazilian State by ...

and

Piauí Piauí ( ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piauí has the shortest coastline of any coas ...

.Folha de S.Paul
Estudo do IBGE acirra disputa entre Ceará e Piauí por território
publicada em 15 June 2013. The regions became popularly known as Cerapió and Piocerá.CidadeVerde.co
Há 350 anos, PI e CE disputam terras em área de litígio
publicada em 9 February 2009.

Background

The dispute dates back to the colonial government of Manuel Inácio de Sampaio e Pina Freire in Ceará, when engineer Silva Paulet presented a map of the then-province which showed the west coastline border reaching the mouth of

Igaraçu River The Igaraçu River, also called the Igarassu River, is a distributary of the Parnaíba River in northern Piauí state in Brazil. It flows from its origin on the Parnaiba River southwest of the city of Parnaíba to the mouth on the Atlantic Ocean ...

. As such, the location known as ''Amarração'', currently

Luís Correia Luís Correia is one of the four coastal cities of Piauí, Brazil. The municipality contains part of the Delta do Parnaíba Environmental Protection Area, created in 1996. The municipality also contains part of the Serra da Ibiapaba Environmenta ...

, would be part of Ceará's territory. During the 19th century Amarração was assisted by the neighboring Ceará city of Granja, until 1874, when the state deputies decided to grant Amarração village status. This caught the attention of politicians from Piauí, who claimed the territory. A solution arose with the General Decree 3.012, of 22 November 1880, determining that there would be an exchange in which Piauí would reestablish its coastline and Ceará would incorporate the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Crateús Crateús is a Brazilian city in the northwest of the state of Ceará in Northeastern Brazil with an estimated 75,159 inhabitants, and one of the most important and oldest cities in the county. Popularly known as the Capital of the West, it is a ...

and Independência. Since then, the border of Ceará and Piauí features several points of indefiniteness and both states keep claiming those places. According to Ceará state deputy Neto Nunes (

PMDB The Brazilian Democratic Movement (, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a " big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, with the most numbers of senators, m ...

), the indefiniteness persists because "Piauí wants a part of the range that is fertile and has good weather, inns, a touristic region of the state", while the land exchanged for the coastline would be of pure

sertão The ''sertão'' (, plural ''sertões'') is the " hinterland" or " backcountry" of Brazil. The word refers both to one of the four sub-regions of the Northeast Region of Brazil or the hinterlands of the country in general (similar to the specific ...

Pending solution proposal

After the 1988 constitution, it was proposed that the dispute would be settled, but it wasn't until 2008 that an actual agreement was presented, one that would give Piauí 1,500 hectares and 1,000 to Ceará. In October 2011, however, the talks were disturbed by Piauí's decision to resort to

Supremo Tribunal Federal The Federal Supreme Court (, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the country's Constitutional Court. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for constitutional issues and its rulings ...

(STF) with a public civil act, claiming a 2,821 km² area that currently belongs to Ceará. If STF accepts Piauí's request, Ceará would lose 66% of

Poranga Poranga is a municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Ceará Ceará (CE) is a state located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. According to the 2022 census conducted by the Bra ...

, 32% of Croatá, 21% of

Guaraciaba do Norte Guaraciaba do Norte is a municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Ceará Ceará (CE) is a state located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. According to the 2022 census conducte ...

, 18% of

Carnaubal Carnaubal is a municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Ceará Ceará (CE) is a state located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. According to the 2022 census conducted by the B ...

, 8% of

and 7% of

Ipaporanga Ipaporanga is a municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Ceará Ceará (CE) is a state located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. According to the 2022 census conducted by the ...

Involved populations

The population in the disputed area are supposedly using health and education systems provided by the government of Ceará. According to the deputy general-prosecutor of Piauí, João Batista de Freitas Júnior, the government of Ceará is irregularly providing such services, since they're not part of either states. Due to the conflict, most of the local population is deprived of public medical assistance and public security services. According to a story published in ''

Diário do Nordeste Diário do Nordeste is a Brazilian newspaper published in Fortaleza, the capital of the Brazilian state of Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the ...

'', people from

Cocal dos Alves Cocal dos Alves is a municipality in the state of Piauí in the Northeast region of Brazil. The municipality contains part of the Serra da Ibiapaba Environmental Protection Area, created in 1996. See also *List of municipalities in Piauí Thi ...

must go to

Viçosa do Ceará Viçosa do Ceará is a municipality in the state of Ceará in the Northeast region of Brazil. The municipality contains part of the Serra da Ibiapaba Environmental Protection Area, created in 1996. See also *List of municipalities in Ceará C ...

in order to have access to public health. According to Sérgio Fontenele, infrastructure secretary of Viçosa do Ceará, mayor Pedro da Silva Brito has ordered medical posts to treat every patient regardless of their state of origin, "but we pay the bill while Piauí enjoy the services". According to him, around 100 families are found in this situation.

References

{{Reflist Geography of Ceará Geography of Piauí Internal territorial disputes Internal borders of Brazil Territorial disputes of Brazil