The Chamizal Settlement

A change in the course of the Rio Grande in the 1860s near El Paso and Ciudad Juarez moved less than one square mile from the river’s south side to its north side, but it created an international land dispute known as the Chamizal dispute. The matter went to international arbitration in 1911, and after 100 years it was settled by treaty between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, signed August 29, 1963, and proclaimed January 16, 1964. Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson of the United States and Adolfo Lopez Mateos of Mexico met in El Paso on September 25, 1964, to commemorate the settlement. The treaty provided for relocation of the Rio Grande channel to carry out a net transfer to Mexico of 437.18 acres, the area concluded to have been awarded to Mexico by the 1911 arbitration. The relocation also provided for a transfer to the United States of 193.16 acres on Cordova Island, formerly an enclave of Mexican territory on the north side of the river channel, in exchange for an equal area downstream from the island. The relocation and related work were to be carried out by the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico.

El Paso, Texas · United States