Chamizal dispute
The Chamizal dispute was a border conflict over about 600 acres (2.4 km2) on the Mexico–United States border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. It was caused by a shift in the Rio Grande, as a survey presented in 1852 marked differences between the bed of the Rio Grande (in Spanish: Río Bravo del Norte) and the present channel of the river. The Chamizal was once the only link between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez and tensions over the territory during the historic Taft-Diaz summit almost resulted in the attempted assassination of both presidents on October 16, 1909.
The Spanish word chamizal comes from chamizo, the common name for the four-wing saltbush (Atriplex canescens) which covered the disputed land near the present-day park.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (which officially ended the Mexican-American War) and the Treaty of 1884 were the agreements originally responsible for the settlement of the international border, both of which specified that the middle of Rio Grande was the border – irrespective of any alterations in the channels or banks. The Treaty of 1884 went on to maintain that the alterations had to result from such gradual natural causes. This provision followed the long-established doctrine of international law that when changes in the course of a boundary river are caused by a deposit of alluvium, the boundary changes with the river, but when changes are due to avulsion, the old channel remains the boundary.
The river continually shifted south between 1852 and 1868, with the most radical shift in the river occurring after a flood in 1864. By 1873 the river had moved approximately 600 acres (2.4 km2), cutting-off land that was in effect made United States territory. The newly exposed land came to be known as El Chamizal, and eventually the land was settled and incorporated as part of El Paso. Both Mexico and the United States claimed the land. In 1895, Mexican citizens filed suit in the Juárez Primary Court of Claims to reclaim the land.
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