President Iván Duque spoke on the ICJ ruling on Nicaragua's dispute over the sovereignty of maritime boundaries in the Caribbean Sea with Colombia following the 2013 ruling. The president did so from the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina to ratify its indivisible and historical principle.
“My government will continue until August 7 in the higher task of preventing Nicaragua from limiting or attempting to limit Colombia's rights,” President Duque said from the islands and reiterating that they will continue to carry out actions to protect the environment and prevent illicit drug trafficking and fight against transnational crimes.
“Our obligation is to defend Colombia's sovereignty over the historical and indivisible archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, Santa Catalina and the Keys, as well as to defend its population in an unrestricted and permanent manner. So is defending Colombia's highest interests in the Caribbean Sea, in the face of that responsibility there are no ambiguities,” said the president.
The Colombian president welcomed the fact that Nicaragua's main claims to the archipelago were rejected by the court, as well as the protection of the rights of the raizal community for its fishing activities. He stressed that no sanction was imposed on the country.
“We will not allow any rights of the Raizal community to be limited. All Colombians must be united in this cause, the defense of national integrity and boundaries cannot obey political flags, it is a constitutional mandate,” added the Colombian head of state.
According to the president, after the November 2013 ruling, the Court would not be able to receive lawsuits against Colombia. However, he argued that the country could not fail to appear in this new lawsuit because it exposed itself to the Court's only response to Nicaragua's request.
“Nicaragua's initial claims were exorbitant, it was intended that the islands of the indivisible historical archipelago of San Andrés, Santa Catalina and Providencia should be declared not to belong to Colombia. He wanted the Esguerra Bárcenas treaty to be declared invalid,” Duque added.
In this regard, the head of state stressed that, in accordance with the ruling and the claims achieved by the Colombian defense, the National Navy “will be able to continue to be present and exercise the right to free navigation and overflight in the area. In no case does the presence of the navy threaten the use of force as Nicaragua intended at the beginning of the process,” he said.
He also stressed that the unity, integrity and indivisibility of the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, Santa Catalina, the cays and islands that contain it were maintained. As well as the adjacent areas that, according to the president, allow the preservation of its cultural and natural heritage.
One of the points that has been highlighted by the archipelago community that participated in the defense, but about which there is no expert consensus, is that “raizal fishermen can sail in the Caribbean until they reach their fishing banks, which they have and have historically had, and which are also in the Colombian territorial sea and the area exclusive economic value of our country as it has been historically,” Duque said.
In addition, the president welcomed the fact that the ICJ considered that Nicaragua also violated international law with a decree seeking to define its territorial sea, which was censored by the international tribunal and with which it sought to appropriate waters that did not belong to it.
Likewise, the ICJ did not agree to impose compensation on Colombia, nor did it hold the case open. However, he urged the establishment of agreements to resolve the bordering problems and coexistence in the Caribbean Sea, but according to President Duque since 2014 the Central American country closed the door to dialogue.
“Since long before, Colombia has always been willing to settle its differences by peaceful and diplomatic means, on all these occasions Nicaragua before and after the 2012 ruling, has not allowed any progress in that direction,” said the Colombian president.
Duque, once again, questioned Daniel Ortega's government. “Colombia, like any democratic nation, is concerned about how the Nicaraguan Government today constitutes itself into an opprobial dictatorship that ignores the fundamental rights of the opposition, the free press, private initiative and citizen freedoms. In a dictatorship there is no respect for the rule of rights or democratic pillars,” he said.
The president said that the government has shown a “litigious spirit” that has also been evident in proceedings against other countries in the region, so he assured that the presidency's mandate will be to ratify the constitutional mandate to defend its sovereignty, the integrity of the islands and the rights of the nation.
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