Territorial disputes in Latin America resist the integrative role of Celac

Territorial disputes in Latin America They are one of the most common conflicts between countries in the region, where the focus is almost permanently on International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Such is the case of the controversy between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo, which, although it dates back almost 200 years and experienced stages of relative calm, the tension skyrocketed in others, setting off all the alarms in border or nearby countries, given the fear of a war escalation that would generate a regional conflict.

The most disturbing is still in force, although the most critical moment was experienced last December, when Venezuela decided, unilaterally, to hold a referendum in which citizens were consulted if they approved of annexing the disputed area.

Faced with a majority of favorable votes, Venezuela activated all its machinery and, in a few hours, modified the national map, appointed a single authority for the area, deployed soldiers in sectors close to the border and approved granting Venezuelan nationality to the Essequibans – some 125,000-, despite not having been given a voice or vote.

But the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and other leaders in the region stopped these plans, by urging their Venezuelan counterparts, Nicolás Maduro, and Guyanese, Irfaan Ali, to dialogue and avoid an armed conflict.

With the meeting between Maduro and Ali, tempers were tempered and speeches moderated, despite the fact that the dispute remains.

The Chile-Bolivia dispute

There are numerous disputes between Chile and Bolivia, most of them originating from the War of the Pacific (1879-1884), but the most recent is the dispute over the waters of the Silala River.

Bolivia maintains that Chile makes illegal use of Silala, since – it insists – these are springs that originate in Bolivia. Meanwhile, Chile argues that it is an international river and its waters belong to both.

In addition, there are historical disputes such as Bolivia’s demand for a sovereign access to the sea, a long-standing issue since the Bolivian loss of some 400 kilometers of coastline in the war conflict of 1879.

In the 1960s there was also a tense moment over sovereignty around the Lauca River.

The ICJ determined in 2018 that Chile has no obligation to negotiate, but Bolivian authorities maintain that the ruling encourages dialogue.

The Nicaragua-Colombia conflict

Nicaragua and Colombia maintain a historic dispute over the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina and some nearby keys.

In 2007, the ICJ ruled, preliminarily, that sovereignty belonged to Colombia and, in 2012, it issued an unappealable ruling that ratified its decision and redefined the maritime border, gaining Nicaragua space in the Caribbean, but the disputes were not resolved.

Colombia argued that the ruling could not be applied until it signed a treaty with Nicaragua.

Belize-Guatemala Litigation

Guatemala has claimed Belize, since 1821, 12,272 square kilometers of the almost 23,000 that the former British colony has, in addition to a hundred islands that were granted by the Spanish Administration to the United Kingdom for logging exploitation in the 17th century.

In 2018 and 2019, both held referendums, in which they approved to settle their differences before the ICJ, which has not yet been resolved.

Resolved or frozen conflicts

The marine delimitation in the Gulf of Venezuela in 1830, and the disagreements generated by the activity of Colombian guerrillas on the common border – 2,219 kilometers – gave rise to countless confrontations, which have lessened in recent years.

Nicaragua and Costa Rica also experienced a dispute over the limits marked by the San Juan River, established in 1858, which serve as a natural border for 100 kilometers.

Subsequently, they have maintained disputes over the Costa Rican power to navigate or not on the river, and over the maritime border. In 2012 the ICJ recognized the free navigation of Costa Rica with “commercial purposes”, but not the free movement of police.

In 2015, it established Costa Rica’s sovereignty over Portillos or Calero Island and ruled that Nicaragua violated Costa Rican territory with a military presence.

Three years later, it ruled that the north of Portillos Island is Costa Rican and ordered Nicaragua to dismantle a military camp it maintained, and delimited the maritime borders.

Also in Central America, Honduras and El Salvador formalized in 2006 the end of a border demarcation process that closed the dispute that caused the Hundred Hour War in 1969.

In 1980, they had signed the delimitation of part of the border, but after the negotiation failed, it came to the ICJ, which in 1992 granted Honduras the 69% of the disputed surface, a decision after which the countries dialogued, concluding successfully in 2006.

Others remain ‘frozen’, such as that of Argentina and Chile due to the Drake Passage or that of Brazil and Uruguay due to the Thomas Albornoz people and the Brazilian Island.

Added to all of these is that between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Malvinas, which caused a war in 1982 with several hundred dead.