NICARAGUA: HONDURAS AND COLOMBIA CLAIM NICARAGUA'S PLANNED OIL EXPLORATION IN CARIBBEAN VIOLATES TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES.

The Nicaraguan government's recent announcement that it was taking bids from US oil companies to explore for oil in the Caribbean has brought it into renewed border conflicts with the governments of Honduras and Colombia. The Honduran government claims that one area of planned oil exploration

Nicaragua's territorial dispute with Honduras and Colombia, which has simmered since the 1980s, is under litigation at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

Dispute dates back to 1928

The origins of the dispute can be traced back to the US occupation of Nicaragua in the 1920s. In 1928, Nicaragua signed a treaty recognizing the 15th parallel as its maritime boundary with Honduras (see NotiCen, 2000-01-27). The treaty also ceded the islands of San Andres and Providencia, as well as the Serrana, Roncador, and Quitasueno keys, to Colombia (see EcoCentral, 1997-02-27).

In 1980, Nicaragua's Sandinista government rejected the 1928 treaty, arguing that it had been signed by an illegitimate puppet government under US military occupation. Sandinista President Daniel Ortega (1979-1990) claimed that the US pressured Nicaragua into signing the treaty to compensate Colombia for the loss of its Panamanian province that resulted from a US-sponsored revolt in 1903.

Since 1980, Nicaragua has set its maritime boundary with Honduras along a diagonal line drawn from the Rio Coco at the 15th parallel northeast to the 17th parallel.

Nicaragua continues to reject Colombian sovereignty over the San Andres Archipelago and the islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina, which lie east of Nicaragua in the Caribbean.

The Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario published an opinion piece by geographer Dr. Mauricio Martinez Espinosa asserting that the islands of San Andres and Providencia are part of Nicaragua's continental shelf. The two islands lie on an embankment of the Caribbean basin that is only 170 km from the Nicaraguan coast, compared to 650 km from the Colombian coast.

Nicaragua maintains tariff against Honduras

Since 1999, the Nicaraguan government has been embroiled in a dispute with Honduras regarding the Honduran legislature's ratification of a treaty with Colombia that recognizes Honduras' disputed maritime boundary with Nicaragua and Colombian sovereignty over disputed territories in the Caribbean (see NotiCen, 2000-01-27). Nicaragua has claimed that Honduras' treaty with Colombia deprives it of 130,000 sq km of its territory.