LatinNews Daily - 27 August 2024

*Nicaragua’s government led by President Daniel Ortega has created a state company responsible for dredging works involving the San Juan river which divides Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Under changes announced in the official gazette, the new company will assume responsibilities from a commission for the development of the San Juan river which was set up in 2008. Nicaragua’s earlier efforts to dredge the river to improve navigability back in 2010 caused a bilateral territorial dispute, prompting Costa Rica to file a complaint before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague that year. A previous 2009 ICJ ruling, which was based on the Cañas-Jerez Treaty of 1858 and accepted by both sides, established that the San Juan river belonged in its entirety to Nicaragua but granted Costa Rica the right to free navigation for commercial purposes. Costa Rica filed its complaint in 2010 before the ICJ after Nicaragua carried out works in the northern part of Costa Rica’s Isla Portillos, a wetland area near the mouth of the San Juan river which has previously been the subject of a territorial dispute. The December 2015 ruling by the ICJ found that Nicaragua had “invaded and occupied Costa Rican territory” in relation to the case.