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The Putumayo River or Içá River ( es, Río Putumayo, pt, Rio Içá) is one of the
tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of the Amazon River, southwest of and parallel to the
Japurá River The Japurá River or Caquetá River is a river about long in the Amazon basin. It rises in Colombia and flows eastward through Brazil to join the Amazon River. Course The river rises as the Caquetá River in the Andes in southwest Colombia. ...
.


Course

The Putumayo River forms part of Colombia's border with
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...
, as well as most of the border with
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...
. Known as the Putumayo in the former three nations, it is called the Içá when it crosses into
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The Putumayo originates in the
Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...
east of the city of Pasto, Colombia. It empties into the Solimões (upper Amazon) near the municipality of Santo Antônio do Içá, Brazil. Major tributaries include the Guamués River, San Miguel, Güeppí, Cumpuya, Algodón, Igara-Paraná, Yaguas, Cotuhé, and Paraná de Jacurapá rivers. The river flows through the Solimões-Japurá moist forests ecoregion.


History


Exploration

In the late 19th century, the Içá was navigated by the French explorer
Jules Crevaux Jules Crevaux (1847–1882) was a French doctor, soldier, and explorer. He is known for his multiple explorations into the interior of French Guiana and the Amazon. Biography Jules Crevaux was born on April 1, 1847 in the north-eastern Fren ...
(1847–1882). He ascended it in a steamer drawing of water, and running day and night. He reached Cuembí, above its mouth, without finding a single
rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade ...
. Cuembí is only from the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
, in a straight line, passing through the town of Pasto in southern Colombia. Creveaux discovered the river sediments to be free of rock to the base of the
Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
; the
river banks In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...
were of
argillaceous Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay mineral ...
earth and the bottom of fine
sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a soil texture, textur ...
.


Rubber boom era

During the Amazon rubber boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the land around the Putumayo became a major
rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, a ...
-producing region, where Julio César Arana's
Peruvian Amazon Company The Peruvian Amazon Company, also called the Anglo-Peruvian Amazon Rubber Co, was a rubber boom company that operated in Peru in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Based in Iquitos, it became notorious for the ill treatment of its indigenous workers ...
maintained a production network centered on the nearby city of
Iquitos Iquitos (; ) is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the ninth-most populous city of Peru. Iquitos is the largest city in the world tha ...
. This production network mainly relied on the labor of indigenous Indians, who suffered from widespread human rights abuses. These abuses were first publicized in 1909 within the British press by the American engineer Walter Hardenburg, who had been briefly imprisoned by Arana's private police force in 1907 while visiting the region; Hardenburg later published his book ''The Putumayo: The Devil's Paradise'' in 1913. In response to Hardenburg's exposé, the British government sent the consul
Roger Casement Roger David Casement ( ga, Ruairí Dáithí Mac Easmainn; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish people, Irish I ...
(who had previously publicized
Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...
atrocities in the rubber business of the
Congo Free State ''(Work and Progress) , national_anthem = Vers l'avenir , capital = Vivi Boma , currency = Congo Free State franc , religion = Catholicism (''de facto'') , leader1 = Leop ...
) to investigate the matter; between 1910 and 1911, Casement subsequently wrote a series of condemnatory reports criticizing the atrocities of the PAC, for which he received a
knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
. Casement's reports later formed much of the basis for the 1987 book ''Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man'' by the anthropologist Michael Taussig, which analyzed how the acts of terror committed by British capitalists along the Putumayo River in Colombia had created a distinct "space of death."


Modern-day

Today the river is a major
transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipel ...
route. Almost the entire length of the river is navigated by
boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically found on i ...
s.
Cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...
farming, along with the rubber trade, is also a major industry on the banks of the Içá. Rubber and balatá (a substance very much like
gutta-percha Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus '' Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, thermoplastic latex derived from the tree, particularly fro ...
, to the point where it is often called gutta-balatá) from the Içá area are shipped to Manaus, Brazil. On March 1, 2008,
Raúl Reyes Luis Edgar Devia Silva (30 September 1948 – 1 March 2008), better known by his ''nom de guerre'' Raúl Reyes, was a leader, Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–Peo ...
and 14 of his fellow
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...
guerrilla companions were killed while on the Ecuadorian side of the border by Colombian military forces. In November 2019, scientists from the
Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
worked with partners from Colombia and Peru to perform a three-week "rapid inventory" of almost 7 million acres around the Putumayo, one of the few Amazonian rivers that remains undammed, documenting 1706 species. The goal of these fast surveys of remote areas is to bring together local stakeholders to collaboratively protect wilderness.


References


External links

* * Hardenburg, W.E. 1913. ''The Putumayo: The Devil's Paradise—Travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and An Account of The Atrocities Committed Upon the Indians Therein''. London: T. Fisher Unwin. https://archive.org/details/putumayodevilspa00hardrich {{Authority control Tributaries of the Amazon River Rivers of Colombia Rivers of Ecuador Rivers of Peru Border rivers Rivers of Amazonas (Brazilian state) Colombia–Peru border Colombia–Ecuador border International rivers of South America Rivers of Loreto Region Geography of Sucumbíos Province