Colombia POd at the International Court of Justice

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Colombia POd at the International Court of Justice

Postby friendlyskies » Sun Nov 25, 2012 5:46 pm

The ICJ just screwed over Colombia royally! And this comes right after ICJ just pissed Costa Rica right the fuck off in February by granting Nicaragua full rights to dredge and control the Río San Juan, which forms the northeastern border between the two countries. Which basically hands the Nicaragua Canal, aka the newer new Panama Canal, aka China is investing in this shit OMGWTF, to the Sandinistas.

AND NOW THIS. I don't know who in Nicaragua is sucking the ICJ's cock, but they are doing a fine job of it. They just awarded Nicaragua a lot of Colombia's Caribbean territorial waters! This is huge. Colombia still gets to keep its wealthy, popular resort islands, San Andrés and Providencia, but they'll have to go through Nicaraguan territory to get there.

In a way, this makes sense. Look at the maps:

Image
The Corn Islands and Cayos Miskitos are Nicaraguan - though Colombia has been trying to get a hold of the Corn Islands forever, it's one of their territorial dreams. San Andrés and Providencia are Colombian, and while locals (and narcotraffickers, and illegal lobster fishers) boat around between all the islands without bothering about any border formalities, tourists cannot do this, which is a pain in the ass for developers on both sides of the fence.

But, in another way, this makes no sense at all. Why? Because Nicaragua has a tiny, impoverished, crappy military that regularly gets waxed by the flipping Costa Rican police, who are better armed and trained. (I think they only have one working helicopter right now.) Which is just embarrassing. Colombia, on the other hand, has a world-class military that's been beefed up with an Israeli-sized infusion of US dollars and equipment over the past couple of decades, and honed to a fine edge by FARC, AUC, and of course the drug dealers.

No contest.

The Nica perspective [tl;dr: Colombia is pissed off, but if they do anything about it, the international community will punish them and Nicaragua will still get all that new territory, neener neener neeeeeener]:

Will Colombia Become a Rogue Nation?

By Tim Rogers/ Nicaragua Dispatch
November 25, 2012

After a week of dithering, chest-thumping, and hot-blooded tweeting, Colombia is apparently ready to talk to Nicaragua about the World Court’s historic redrawing of maritime boundaries in the Caribbean Sea.


The New Maritime Boundaries, acccording to ICJ ruling

Since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its verdict on Nov. 19, granting Nicaragua some 100,000 square kilometers of disputed maritime territory, Colombia’s response has been higgledy-piggledy and highly emotional. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ first reaction was to dismiss the whole second half of the verdict as unacceptable to his country. Hours later, Colombia’s Foreign Minister María Angela Holguín took a more diplomatic approach by calling for dialogue and understanding with Nicaragua. The following day, the Colombian government apparently flip-flopped again by saying it would maintain its warships in Nicaraguan waters to defend its historic claim to the sea. On Saturday, Colombia again called for talks with Nicaragua, though it’s not clear what the South American nation hopes to negotiate on the margin of the ICJ with their “gunboat dialogue.”

Nicaragua, meanwhile, has remained patient. The Sandinistas historic position on sovereignty, famously stated by Gen. Augusto Sandino (“sovereignty is not discussed, it’s defended with guns in hand”), seems quaint in this circumstance, given the enormous disparity in firepower between the two nations. Still, Nicaragua has made it clear that there isn’t much to talk about at this point.

“I am certain that…Colombia will recognize the ruling by the International Court of Justice, because there is no other way forward; there is only one path and that’s to comply with the ruling and respect Nicaragua’s historic right,” said Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in a speech Friday night.


Nicaragua’s call for rule of law stands in contradiction to Colombia’s petulant rogue-nation behavior as it threatens to defy the will of the World Court. Other countries in the region can only watch the situation with quiet wonderment, waiting to see if reason and international law will prevail over nationalism and military might.

Colombia’s substantial loss of maritime territory seems to have triggered an identity crisis in the powerful South American nation. Some Colombians have gone so far as to suggest that losing their claim to the Caribbean waters was worse than losing Panama in 1903. As mainland Colombians vent nationalistic determination, the islanders of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina fret over the future management of natural resources.


Residents of San Andres Island protest the World Court’s ruling (photo/ Juan Velasquez)

The Colombian government, stuck in a no-win situation amid conflicting domestic and international interests, has reacted in a ham-fisted manner; it’s still not clear whether Colombia intends to uphold the ICJ ruling a week after it was handed down.

Political analysts think Colombia will eventually settle down and come to its senses before making any final policy decisions.

“Colombia is too sophisticated to continue behaving like Cantinflas,” says Nicaragua’s Arturo Cruz, a former ambassador and political science professor at INCAE. “Colombia will eventually realize that they would lose a lot more by defying the International Court of Justice than they will by ceding part of the Caribbean Sea.”

If Colombia’s final decision is to thumb its nose at The Hague and international law, it would set a very worrisome precedent, Cruz says. That’s probably why other Latin American countries—many of which have their own cases before the International Court of Justice—are watching Colombia very carefully right now and reserving comment until their temper tantrum is over.

Noise from Colombia’s political peanut gallery has done little to assuage the country’s patriotic distress. Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who as president four years ago promised President Ortega that his country would uphold whatever ruling the ICJ handed down, today—free from the responsibilities of office—says President Santos should reject the ruling.

To argue his case for defying the ICJ, Uribe has been tweeting prolifically about other cases in history that he claims establishes a precedent for rebellion against the Court: France in 1973, Island in 1974, Argentina in 1977, the U.S. in 1984, Romania in 1989, Malaysia in 1989 and Nigeria in 2002.

“Court rulings that violate a country’s sovereignty are rejected,” Uribe tweeted on Friday.


“Colombia got blindsided by this ruling and right now they are venting their spleen to get the venom out and come to grips with it,” says Nicaragua’s ex-Foreign Minister Francisco Aguirre, who presented Nicaragua’s case against Colombia before the ICJ in 2001.

Aguirre says he too thinks Colombia will eventually “regain its senses and act like an adult nation,” but insists Nicaragua needs to be prepared for the possibility that the South American nation will buck the ICJ entirely and use its military muscle to assert its historic claim to the Caribbean waters. In the event of Colombia’s defiance, Aguirre says, Nicaragua would need to launch an aggressive diplomatic offensive in international forums such as SICA, the UN and OAS.

If that happens, Nicaragua could expect immediate pushback from Costa Rica, which claims Nicaragua is also violating the will of the ICJ by maintaining brigades of Sandinista Youth to occupy a disputed border region along the Río San Juan. Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister Enrique Castillo says Nicaragua’s continued presence on Harbour Head island “constitutes a brazen lack of compliance with the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures” handed down March 8, 2011.

As the maritime dispute becomes political, Nicaragua’s allies—namely the leftist countries of ALBA—will have to overcome their sudden shyness and speak up in defense of their besieged comrade. So far, the only country to come out in open support of the ICJ verdict is ALBA-defector Honduras, which said it would uphold the ruling after determining that it would not affect its maritime borders.


In Washington, the expectation is that Colombia will eventually calm down and do the right thing by adhering to international law, according to Latin American analysts.

The deadline for Colombia’s temper tantrum could be as early as today, when a high-ranking U.S. delegation arrives in Bogotá for a round of bilateral meetings with the Santos administration to discuss issues related to free-trade and security cooperation.

Though the meeting was not scheduled to coincide with the World Court ruling, the timing is such that it could encourage Colombia to cool it on the chest-thumping and focus on the task of tending to U.S. relations, says Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue.

“Colombia will want to be under reasonable control and lower the temperature by the time the U.S. delegation gets there,” Shifter says. “They won’t want to be too distracted or wound up over the ICJ ruling.”


But, current Colombian President Santos, who is a well-liked power player in the region, is pissed off. Former Colombian President Uribe, a widely respected badass, has his back. Obama cut Plan Colombia significantly, so the USA and Anglophone Bloc has less leverage there than it did a few years ago. Colombia and Costa Rica have excellent diplomatic relations, and are sworn enemies of Venezuela and Nicaragua, respectively. Nicaragua and Venezuela are allies and part of the ALBA group of nations, which is radically socialist and vehemently anti-USA and anti-NWO. Heck, even by ALBA standards Nicaragua is a pariah state in the region - the Sandinistas fixed the last elections without even trying to make it look legit, and they never go to any of the regional meetings anymore.

Hmmmmm......

Anyway, just getting bored of the USA-centric stuff....
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