The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected Thursday’s claims Nicaragua in return for Colombia to expand its continental shelf in the Caribbean, an area rich in fish and oil resources.

The judges of the UN Supreme Court, based in The Hague, rejected by thirteen votes to four Nicaragua’s arguments against a 2012 ruling that allowed it a major expansion of its maritime zones in the Caribbean, but with no further beyond the 200 nautical miles that would make it overlap the exclusive economic zone of seven Colombian islands.

On Thursday, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro celebrated a “great victory for Colombia in The Hague”.

Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva also hailed the ICJ’s “momentous decision”.

“Today will undoubtedly be remembered by each of us. The International Court of Justice has just delivered the last sentence in the long list of decisions that are part of the judicial file before this court between Colombia and Nicaragua,” Leyva said in a video released after learning of the decision.

Confirms 2012 ruling

Nicaraguan agent for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Carlos Argüello, said on Thursday his country had “turned out well” in its dispute with Colombia, despite the UN’s highest court prevent it from extending its continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles that demarcate its maritime border with that country.

For the Nicaraguan agent, the “most important thing” about today’s verdict is “that our right granted by the 2012 verdict, which Colombia contested from the very beginning, has been reaffirmed; so in that sense we came out well.”

This sentence “reaffirms” that “the 200 miles of Nicaragua are indisputable. It has already been clearly reaffirmed how far our rights go,” he noted.

According to him, today’s ruling leaves “areas that are still not clearly included in the ruling, and those are things we need to study, because our platform extends beyond 200 nautical miles, but we’re going to have to see the area where the 200 miles of not reach Colombia”.

“What we need to do is analyze and clarify the issue,” he said.

Despite this sentence, Managua believes that there is a natural extension of the continent that extends beyond 200 nautical miles. and in 2013, he filed a lawsuit asking the International Court of Justice to recognize it, despite the fact that the area he claimed overlapped with Colombia’s exclusion zone.

During the trial, Colombia’s lawyers rejected the Central American country’s request because the government of the South American country has not signed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which recognizes the continental shelf.

This is a historic dispute between the two countries over an area of ​​oil and gas reserves.