President Gustavo Petro and his two predecessors, Iván Duque and Juan Manuel Santos, celebrated the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in favor of Colombia this Thursday. “Great victory,” said the incumbent president of the court’s decision to reject Nicaragua’s claim to expand its continental shelf. The current case, which began in 2013, had raised concerns in both governments before Petro. After the new judgment, Duque reiterated that Colombia should not comply with another partially contrary judgment, and Santos stressed that this was the end “of the legal battle before the International Court of Justice,” which began in 2001 with a first claim on the sovereignty of the archipelago of San Andres and Providencia.
“With this ruling, we hope to settle the border dispute and focus on the sustainable development of our archipelago.” has expressed himself on social networks the Colombian President, who will travel to San Andrés to celebrate the news. Beyond the current litigation, two other trials in The Hague were part of an even larger confrontation: the one that began in 2001 and another that also began in 2013. The verdict in the first case from 2012 particularly affected the Colombian islands. In the Caribbean Sea. The ICJ then recognized the South American country’s sovereignty over the archipelago, but granted Nicaragua a larger expanse of surrounding sea lands than it already had. This created tensions that have not yet been resolved and will remain outside the International Court of Justice.
For his part, Duque celebrated the court’s decision and congratulated the team that defended Colombia during his tenure (2018-2022). “You have distorted the arguments of Nicaragua with its absurd claim of an extended continental shelf.” said on Twitter. However, he reiterated that the country must stick to the position of not applying the 2012 “unfair judgment” as it negatively affects the marine sphere. “You can’t give up a millimeter of territory,” he emphasized. Already on Wednesday, hours before the verdict was announced, he had questioned the authority of the International Court of Justice and indicated that Colombia should ignore the verdict if it was favorable for Nicaragua: “Our borders can only be changed by a border treaty ratified by Congress will.” the republic. A diplomatic tension to defend our sovereignty is better than giving up home territories.”
Santos and the chancellor of his two governments (2010-2018), María Angela Holguín, also claimed “the triumph” of the South American country. “This ends a long chapter in Colombia’s recent history, that of the litigation before the International Court of Justice. These put the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, their people and their needs at the center of the national conversation,” it said in a statement. It was the Santos government that withdrew from the Bogotá Pact in 2012 and removed the country from the jurisdiction of the court after the first ruling. The problem for Colombia, however, was that Nicaragua filed the third lawsuit just days before the court loss went into effect.
The Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez, stressed that the decision will benefit the Raizal community of the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina: “This opens the way to focus on improving living conditions”. [de este pueblo]“. The Raizal fishermen, of Afro-Caribbean and Protestant origin, had expressed concern about the environmental damage that could be caused by the possible exploitation of the resources that Nicaragua would carry out on its continental shelf. In addition, they had denounced that the earlier trials caused difficulties in fishing in areas that historically belonged to them and are now under the jurisdiction of the Central American country.
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