Which country has sovereignty over the Galapagos Islands?

Which country has sovereignty over the Galapagos Islands? Ecuador. The Galapagos Islands are an Ecuadorian archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 900 kilometers west of mainland Ecuador.

Ecuador formally annexed the islands in 1832, during the presidency of Juan José Flores. The group is now Ecuador’s Galápagos Province, with its administrative capital at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristóbal Island. The archipelago’s volcanic isolation produced many distinctive species, including giant tortoises and marine iguanas.

The islands are strongly associated with Charles Darwin, who visited in 1835 aboard HMS Beagle. His observations of island species helped shape his later work on natural selection. A common mix-up is confusing Galapagos location with sovereignty: the islands lie far offshore, but they are not part of Chile, Colombia, or Peru. Ecuador also administers the surrounding Galápagos Marine Reserve.