Nearly nine billion pesos in lawyers has cost Colombia the conflict with Nicaragua in The Hague

On April 21, Colombia will once again face the Court of The Hague over the lawsuits that Nicaragua has filed for the alleged failure to comply with the ruling issued by the International Court of Justice in 2012 regarding the kilometers of sea that should be transferred to the Central American country.

It should be noted that since 2013, Colombia hired a team of lawyers with whom it has faced the international process. The fees that the country has paid to the professionals who lead this case almost amount to nine billion pesos.

The pair that leads the defense team earn an average of 43 million pesos per month since 2013, this would be 8.7 billion in total.

The agent and co-agent of Colombia before the International Court of Justice in The Hague are, respectively, Carlos Gustavo Arrieta, former judge of the Council of State and former Attorney General of the Nation, and Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, former judge of the Constitutional Court, dean of Law of the Universidad de los Andes, ambassador of Colombia to UNESCO, presidential adviser to César Gaviria and Virgilio Barco, and advisor to Juan Manuel Santos in the dialogues with the FARC.

On the one hand, Carlos Gustavo Arrieta has received 4,572 million pesos since 2013 when the Colombian Foreign Ministry began preparing for litigation before the international justice system. On the other hand, the co-agent to The Hague has invoiced 4,197 million pesos for participating in this case.

It should be noted that, although Colombia's defense team before The Hague is led by Arrieta and Cepeda, six other lawyers specializing in Public International Law are also involved.

The professionals who will face international justice on behalf of Colombia, have had the collaboration of the Colombian Navy and other entities of the local and regional order, as well as several members of the Raizal community of the Archipelago, who from a multidisciplinary perspective have made valuable contributions to the defense of the Nation.

What can happen to the Hague ruling in the dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua?

It should be recalled that this dispute, although it is related to the maritime territory that Colombia had to cede to Nicaragua in 2012, is not to make new distributions. On the contrary, the lawsuit filed by the president of the Central American country, Daniel Ortega, seeks to respect the ruling by assuring that Colombia continues to invade areas of the 75,000 kilometers delivered.

Colombia, for its part, denies these incidents and, as evidence of this, maintains that there have never been any seizures or seizures in this part of the maritime border. He even made a counterclaim in which he warned: “Nicaragua has violated the artisanal fishing rights of the inhabitants of the archipelago, in particular the Raizal community, to access and operate their traditional fishing banks.”

In Nicaragua, moreover, a decree would have been issued that would be contrary to international law and would be seeking to add even more marine areas than it had already won in court, to the detriment of Colombia.

In order to make a decision, the Court has listened to both sides. For Colombia, the vice-president and chancellor, Marta Lucía Ramírez, the governor of the department of San Andrés and Providencia, Everth Hawkins Sjogreen, the National Navy and the representative of the raizal community, Kent Francis James, have spoken directly because one of the activities on which they economically depend is fishing ancestral and this was affected by what was decided by the Court in 2012. For its part, in the Central American country, it has submitted the evidence that would support its claim showing non-compliance with the norm and what was issued by the Court in 2012.

As El Tiempo mentioned, the decision will have wide repercussions on the next government, which will have to address the issue and decide the right strategy before this international court and against Nicaragua. Well, in the case of Colombia, the decision not only affects the issue of sovereignty but also a key economic income for the communities of the San Andrés Archipelago.

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