Patos Island (Venezuela)

Patos Island is a small uninhabited island in the northwestern Gulf of Paria. The island is a part of the Dependencias Federales of Venezuela.

Geography

Patos Island is located about northeast of Caracas in the Golfo de Paria. The coordinates are. It lies in the Boca Grande strait of the Bocas del Dragón, approximately off the Paria Peninsula of mainland Venezuela and about west-south-west of Chacachacare, which is part of Trinidad and Tobago.
The uninhabited island has an area of only with a length of and wide with the highest point reaching about.

Patos Island was part of the former British colony of Trinidad and Tobago. In 1859 the United Kingdom began a claim on the island that Venezuela rejected arguing that it was not mentioned in the capitulation of 1797 nor in the Treaty of Amiens of 1802. In 1902 the United Kingdom raised its flag on the island which provoked a strong protest from the Venezuelan government. In 1904 Venezuela included it as part of the Federal territory Colón. On 26 February 1942, the island became part of Venezuela in exchange for Soldado Rock to Trinidad and Tobago and was put under the administration of the Ministerio de Relaciones Interiores as part of the Dependencias Federales.