The Nicaraguan deputy Wilfredo Navarro charged this Thursday against the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, whom he called “gorilla” because he allegedly intends to ignore a resolution of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the rights of Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea.
“Today Colombia is trying again to ignore that sovereign right of Nicaragua, which is recognized by the International Court of Justice and is trying to ignore the sentence,” Navarro said before the plenary session of the National Assembly (Parliament) during an ordinary session.
President Duque assured this Thursday that his government will not allow Nicaragua to limit the rights of his country in the Caribbean Sea, nor those of the Raizal community of the San Andrés and Providencia archipelago.
Duque reacted in this way after learning of the new ICJ ruling that considered that Colombia had violated Nicaragua’s “sovereignty and jurisdiction” in its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by authorizing fishing activities in Nicaraguan waters and ordered it to “cease immediately” their conduct.
“My government, until next August 7, will continue with the superior task of preventing Nicaragua from limiting or trying to limit the rights of Colombia,” Duque said in a statement from the island of San Andrés, accompanied by the vice president and chancellor, Marta Lucía Ramírez, the military and police leadership and other authorities.
Navarro, a dissident liberal ally of the Sandinistas, criticized the Colombian governments “that have been, in the past, talking about compliance with respect for human rights” and “are the first to violate it, by causing this situation where they are unaware of a ruling international”.
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“The court of the world will have to judge Colombia for its ignorance, its eagerness, its arrogance and the attitudes of the gorilla president of Colombia who not only ignores international rulings, but also violates the human rights of Colombians every day,” he continued. Navarrese.
“Is the gorilla Duque a defender of human rights when he is not complying with a sentence that is given by the highest court of international justice?” he continued.
Nicaragua’s “resounding victory”
During the parliamentary session, the Sandinista deputies described the ICJ resolution as a “resounding victory” for Nicaragua.
“The Hague continues to give Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan revolution the historical reason,” celebrated the president of Parliament, the official Gustavo Porras.
“Nicaragua as a whole achieved a resounding victory in the International Court of Justice,” said Sandinista deputy Adolfo Pastrán.
Pastrán noted that the ICJ ruled “that Colombia effectively violated the sovereignty of Nicaragua.” He has ordered, he added, “to stop these actions of aggression against the sovereignty of our country and the illegal intervention in the maritime territories that corresponds to us since the November 2012 ruling.”
The area of the Caribbean Sea that Colombia does not want to recognize Nicaragua, assures the legislator, “is very important for our interests and our rights, because it is an exclusive economic zone where there is much fishing wealth and possible hydrocarbons.”
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“This is an important, legal victory for Nicaragua, exercising international law and has made it clear that Colombia has violated our sovereignty and has to respect it,” he remarked.
This Thursday’s ruling has its origins in an ICJ ruling issued on November 19, 2012, by which Colombia maintained sovereignty over the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, as well as the keys that comprise it, and conserved 12 nautical miles of the water that surrounds these territories, but lost almost 75,000 square kilometers of sea to Nicaragua.
Nicaragua then denounced before the ICJ, based in The Hague, that Colombia had violated international law by not applying that sentence because its Navy carries out operations in Caribbean waters that do not correspond to it and the Colombian Government issued the decree that established a “contiguous zone comprehensive”.
