“Government deceives Colombians by showing defeat as a victory”: Rodrigo Lara on The Hague ruling

Following the release of the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, which found that Colombia violated “its international obligation to respect the rights and jurisdiction of Nicaragua over its exclusive economic zone, interfering with fishing and maritime research activities and on Nicaraguan vessels”, several Senators of the Republic have spoken about the case.

One of the first to do so was Rodrigo Lara. The senator referred on his Twitter account to the words of Carlos Gustavo Arrieta, the country's agent before the International Court, who assured that “Colombia is very satisfied with the decision, as the Court agreed with the most important arguments.”

One of those points that Arrieta highlighted was that the International Court recognized the principle of freedom of navigation that the National Navy has to be present in the archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia. Faced with this, Lara said: “It presents as a victory an international right and custom: our freedom of navigation in the exclusive economic zone that Nicaragua took from us,” she said through social networks.

The Senator of Cambio Radical also referred to the fact that the Colombian State facilitated the amputation of its territory. “Negligence, improvisation and failure, after failure, Colombian diplomacy defends this new defeat with something like “to lose is to win a little,” the congressman said.

For Lara, Iván Duque's government is showing two sides and is not telling the truth to the citizens. In his publications, he asserted that, “the Government does not tell the country that, for example, Colombia will no longer be able to prevent Nicaragua's oil exploitation in that area, or the possible granting of fishing licenses to predatory Chinese industrial fishing fleets.”

Another issue that Arrieta highlighted as a triumph for Colombia was that the Court “did not accept Nicaragua's request to maintain its jurisdiction to continue to know the status of the process. Another critical point that he also denied was not accepting that country's request to receive compensation in favor of them. Both results are very positive for the country,” he added.

In his last triune, the senator affirmed that: “the Court's rejection of Nicaragua's extravagant or unfounded requests in the lawsuit cannot be presented as a victory for the government.”

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For his part, the Senator of the Democratic Center, Ernesto Macias Tovar, said of the ruling that “the defense of Colombia's sovereignty must be sacred to all. While the Hague Court calls for a bilateral agreement and does not condemn Colombia to pay compensation as Nicaragua intended. Here are politicians interpreting the ruling to their electoral accommodation.”

But they were not the only senators to address the issue. From the Democratic Pole, Senator Alexander López Maya lamented that, “the Raizal people cannot fish in multiple areas and the loss of sovereignty over large areas of the sea. It is necessary to restore relations with Nicaragua in order to avoid damage to the Raizal people,” the congressman requested.

In the same vein, his party partner, Iván Cepeda, referred, who argued that, “Colombia's new defeat in the dispute with Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice is the result of mediocre diplomatic service and unwise judicial defense. It is the people of San Andrés who pay for the effects of this disastrous international policy.”

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