PUBLISHED:lamula.peThree days after the ruling that the International Court of The Hague will issue on the dispute between Peru and Chile, it is pertinent to remember the previous resolution that the Court gave regarding another Latin American conflict:Colombia and Nicaragua.
November 19, 2012 was the most anticipated date for the citizens of those two countries, since That day they would know the sentence on the territorial and maritime delimitation dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua initiated before the Court in 2001, when the Nicaraguan government asked this court to define the maritime borders in the Caribbean. It wasn't really something new. The conflict, diplomatically and politically, dated back to 1980, when Nicaragua disregarded the Esguerra-Bárcenas Treaty signed with Colombia in 1928, considering it null, since it argued that the country was then militarily occupied by the US.
As is known, the The court's ruling granted 75,000 square kilometers of the Caribbean Sea to Nicaragua, which changed the map of Colombia, and that of Nicaragua as well:it would now have a maritime border with Jamaica and Panama. Despite the fact that The Hague ratified that Colombia was the owner of the San Andrés and Providencia islands and the minor keys in the Caribbean, which would imply that this nation was the great winner, the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, considered that it was not possible to lose a large portion of the sea. In fact, Noticias Caracol immediately headlined:"More land, less water." “The Colombian territory is smaller from today”, sentenced other media.
SOURCE:EL ESPECTADOR
As is obvious in these cases, the ruling should be complied with by the parties, since they accepted the Court's jurisdiction, but Santos announced that he would appeal. And not only that, shortly after he stated that the Hague ruling "is inapplicable." In return, the Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, demanded that the government comply and threatened to go to the UN, while Santos announced that Colombia would withdraw from the Pact of Bogotá, signed in 1948, and that it would place it under the jurisdiction of the Court.
More than a year has passed since the Court's ruling and there have been no major developments, except that Colombia has reinforced its naval presence in the disputed area, and is seeking legal channels to try to reverse the effects of the ruling. Nicaragua has not been left behind and also has a military presence in Caribbean waters. Those affected are the small fishermen of both countries, who cannot carry out their tasks in those latitudes.
SOURCE:EFE
In the case that concerns us, Ollanta Humala and Sebastián Piñera have affirmed that they will abide by the Hague ruling. Both have the support of the political and business class and civil society. Although there is no lack of dissenting voices, such as that of deputy Jorge Tarud. They have also recognized that, despite the fact that the ruling will force them to make changes and this will take some time, the ruling will be valid immediately. That this case be different from the one mentioned in these lines.
