Costa Rica celebrates legal victory in border spat with Nicaragua

December 16th, 2015 (EFE) Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis on Wednesday expressed his satisfaction with the “forcefulness” of the ruling issued by the International Court of Justice at The Hague finding that Nicaragua violated Costa Rican sovereignty.

“The resolution of the court fully satisfies (Costa Rica’s) national assessment that its territory was invaded by Nicaragua in an open act of illegality,” said Solis at a press conference.

The president emphasized the “forcefulness of the ruling,” given that “the majority of the propositions of Costa Rica were accepted unanimously and completely.”

“There was justice in the resolution and it wasn’t by accident. There was dedicated and committed work by an extraordinary team of jurists,” Solis said.

The president issued a call to Nicaragua for it, as “any responsible government” would do, to respect the ruling and for a space for dialogue to be constituted to move forward on different issues on the bilateral agenda.

The ICJ on Wednesday ruled in favor of Costa Rica in its border dispute with Nicaragua by recognizing Costa Rican sovereignty over what is known as Isla Calero in Costa Rica and Isla Portillos (also Harbor Head Island) in Nicaragua, in the Caleros wetlands, concluding that Managua violated its territory with its military presence and its navigation rights in the San Juan River.

ICJ chief justice Ronny Abraham read the ruling on the case brought by Costa Rica in 2010 regarding an alleged military invasion and environmental damage to a portion of its territory protected by international treaties, and another by Nicaragua against the neighboring country for alleged environmental damage to Nicaragua’s San Juan River during the construction of a road.

Abraham said that the court, in a 14-2 decision, acknowledged that “Costa Rica has sovereignty over the territory in litigation,” the riverine Isla Portillos, or Isla Calero, on the Caribbean coast.”

The court unanimously found that Nicaragua violated Costa Rica’s territorial sovereignty by creating three river channels and establishing a military presence in Costa Rican territory in its attempt to link the San Juan River, over which Nicaragua has sovereignty, to the Caribbean Sea.

In its ruling, the ICJ also confirmed that no proof exists that Costa Rica had caused environmental damage to the San Juan River in the construction of a road parallel to the waterway, known colloquially in Costa Rica as “La Trocha.”

Additional editing by ICR News