Borders of Brazil – Territorial and Maritime Boundaries
It is over a territorial area of 8541,205 km 2 that the Brazilian State exercises its sovereignty. This authority also covers the maritime border, called the “territorial sea”, as well as airspace and underground.
Borders or boundaries can be maritime or land and determine where a particular country begins and ends. Boundaries exist to guarantee the defense and protection of a State. They are established by treaties or agreements between two or more countries. Boundaries can follow natural geographic features such as the layout of rivers, mountains, lakes, mountains, or be artificial, when they do not follow natural lines and ignore the terrain, as in African countries.
Continental borders
According to Picktrue, Brazil has an extensive stretch of continental borders, 15,700 km long, with 10 of the 12 countries in South America. With the exception of Chile and Ecuador, all other South American countries border the Brazilian territory .
At its northern end, the state of Amapá borders French Guiana .
The Suriname and Guyana , in turn, bordering the states of Para and Roraima , in an area covered by plateaus and hills. The Venezuela and Colombia bordering the states of Roraima and Amazonas , marked the Amazon rain forest and an extensive and complex network of drainage.
The Peruvian border extends through the states of Amazonas and Acre and is also covered by areas of Amazon forest and a series of natural parks, both on the Peruvian side and on the Brazilian side. The border areas with Bolivia cover part of the states of Acre, Rondônia , Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, in addition to areas of Amazon forest , also comprising extensive areas destined for the planting of perennial crops such as soybeans.
Further south, in the platinum area, Brazil borders Paraguay in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná , divided by the Paraná River. This region is called the triple border between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina , and the last Brazilian city is the city of Foz do Iguaçu, where the Itaipu binational plant (between Brazil and Paraguay) and the Iguaçu Falls (between Brazil and Paraguay) are located. Argentina).
The Argentina is in contact with Brazil in the states of Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay, south of the Rio Grande do Sul, close the border configuration Brazilian continental.
The protection of continental borders is one of the Armed Forces’ attributions, as the border regions must be protected, so as not only to prevent the entry of people and products illegally, but also to organize the different migratory flows authorized by the Brazilian State.
Maritime borders
The Brazilian coastal strip extends from the state of Amapá, in the extreme north of the country, to Rio Grande do Sul, in its extreme south, comprising a total length of more than 7,300 km in length, constituting the 16th country in the world with the largest coastal area.
Territorial sea
The maritime border also covers the so-called “ territorial sea ”: an area determined by international agreement in which a country has the right to exercise its sovereignty over a part of the ocean (in the case of Brazil, the Atlantic). This maritime boundary strip is 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) in length, counted from the coast towards the ocean.
Exclusive Economic Zone
The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) refers to an area of the ocean in which a country has the right to exploit existing natural resources. This strip has as its external limit a line of 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) counted from the coast, and, as its internal limit, the edge of the territorial sea.
The delimitation of the exclusive economic zone and other concepts of maritime law were established in 1982 by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, held in Montego Bay (Jamaica).
Contiguous zone
The strip of the first 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the EEZ is known as the contiguous zone . In the contiguous zone, the Brazilian State does not have sovereignty, but has the right to inspect and apply its laws in a preventive manner.
It is in the contiguous zone that vessels are patrolled to carry out sanitary inspections in order to prevent the entry of possible diseases and epidemics into Brazilian territory.
It is also in the contiguous zone that the entry of illegal immigrants via the coast is patrolled and prevented, and inspections are carried out on the conditions of transport of people and products at sea, so that it is done properly.
Airspace and underground
Border control and surveillance also extends to “airspace”, that is, to the entire atmosphere above the emerging lands and territorial sea. Another important limit in Brazil refers to the subsoil: all natural resources (oil, minerals, natural gas, etc.) found under the continent or at the bottom of the sea, within the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone, belong to the State.
