Territorial disputes of Nicaragua

In 1803, after Spain's Viceroyalty of New Granada had been re-established in 1739, the archipelago and the province of Veraguas – covering the western territory of Panama and the eastern coast of Nicaragua – were added to its area of jurisdiction.

In 2001 Nicaragua filed claims with the ICJ over the disputed maritime boundary involving 50,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi) in the Caribbean, which included the islands of San Andrés and Providencia.

In a preliminary decision the Court sided with Colombia on the question of sovereignty over the islands (47 km2 or 18 sq mi) and agreed with Nicaragua that the 82nd meridian (West) is not a maritime border.

"[6] According to the Cañas-Jerez Treaty of 1858, as reaffirmed and interpreted by the arbitration of U.S. president Grover Cleveland in 1888 and by the judgment of the Central American Court of Justice in 1916 [1][permanent dead link‍], the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica runs along the right bank of the San Juan River, from its mouth in the Caribbean port of San Juan del Norte (formerly known as Greytown), to a point located 5 km (3 mi) downstream from an old fortification known as Castillo Viejo ("Old Castle"), originally built to guard the access to Lake Nicaragua.

A dispute emerged in 1998 when Nicaragua forbade the transit of Costa Rican policemen in the river, which Nicaragua claimed to be a breach of sovereignty, and imposed a US$25 fee, as well as a visa requirement, for any Costa Rican tourists who entered the San Juan River, alleging that the Spanish language phrase con objetos de comercio, which had usually been translated (including in President Cleveland's awards) as "with purposes of commerce," in fact had to be read as "with articles of commerce," and that tourists were not "articles.

[10] Historically, the dispute over the San Juan River has been exacerbated by the possibility that it might become part of a Nicaragua Canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In October 2010, a dispute began between Costa Rica and Nicaragua regarding the dredging of 33 kilometres (21 mi) of the San Juan River by the Nicaraguan government in the area of Isla Calero.

[14][16] Nicaragua stationed around 50 soldiers in Isla Calero[15][16][17] Costa Rica claimed it was a military incursion and presented a complaint before the Organization of American States (OAS).

On November 12, by a vote of 22 to 2, the OAS ambassadors approved a resolution requesting Costa Rica and Nicaragua to pull out their troops from a conflict zone along their common border and to hold talks to settle their dispute.

[18] Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega discarded the possibility of withdrawing the troops and disregarded OAS resolution because his government considers that this organization does not have jurisdiction to resolve border disputes.

However, when tensions between the nations rose over Costa Rica's rights of navigation on the river in 2013, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega claimed Guanacaste province belonged to Nicaragua.

The location of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean .
The Gulf of Fonseca from space, July 1997.
A sketch of the Greytown ( i.e. , San Juan del Norte ) harbor area, contained in the first arbitral award given by Gen. Edward Porter Alexander on Sep. 30, 1897, indicating the boundary line between Nicaragua and Costa Rica as determined by that award. Alexander had been assigned by U.S. president Grover Cleveland to resolve the ambiguities in the location of the frontier set by the Cañas-Jerez Treaty of 1858. [ 7 ]
Map, dated March 2, 1898, from the official proceedings of the binational commission presided by engineer arbitrator Gen. Edward Porter Alexander , to define the frontier between the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. [ 8 ]
A map depicting the border lines in the area near San Juan del Norte , as disputed by Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Oct. 2010. Note: the area shown as "Calero Island" is not that island. [ 11 ]