Maritime Border Dispute Goes Before The Hague

MANAGUA – Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos and a team of international lawyers traveled to the Netherlands this week for the opening of Nicaragua’s international lawsuit against Honduras in The Hague over disputed Caribbean maritime borders between the two countries.

Nicaragua filed the case in 1999, asking the court to rule on the maritime borders it claims were never defined. Honduras, meanwhile, claims the borders were defined by the King of Spain at the beginning of the last century, and upheld by the

in a separate case in 1960.

The disputed maritime territory has been a point of contention between the two countries for the past decade. In contention are fishing grounds and potential untapped oil and gas resources.