Tuesday 20 November 2012

International court issues ruling in Caribbean dispute

The International Court at the Hague issued its ruling on 19 November to settle a maritime frontier dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua, recognizing some of each country's territorial demands but disappointing Colombia by giving Nicaragua portions of the Caribbean it had hitherto administered. The ruling was to settle a dispute over territory thought rich in oil and fishing resources. Nicaragua was given two chunks of water east of the vertical Meridian 82 line, while Colombia retained sovereignty over seven disputed islets dependent on the San Andrés Archipelago including two now surrounded by Nicaraguan waters, El Colombiano reported on 19 November, showing also a map of the delineation. The area conceded to Nicaragua was 531 square kilometres while only 65 were given to Colombia, Spain's El País reported. Colombia had sought all waters east of Meridian 82 and its president said the court should have confirmed texts signed in 1928 and 1930 that set that as the frontier. Nicaragua had in turn sought a frontier line more to the east, running north-eastward and including Colombian waters as well as the disputed cays. While Nicaragua hailed the ruling as a victory, Colombian politicians expressed grief and there was no immediate consensus on how to respond. President Juan Manuel Santos said on 20 November that Colombia would do all it could to defend its rights, while Colombia's representative before the Court, Julio Londoño, said the government would study the ruling before deciding on a course of action. Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín, apparently faced with considerable criticisms, said in San Andrés on 20 November that she was ready to resign if that "appeased" the people of the San Andrés department, but that this was no time to be looking for scapegoats, El Espectador reported.

Over 27 killed, found dead in Mexico over weekend

Mexico's investigative review Proceso counted 27 presumed victims of crime, either shot or found dead around Mexico on 18 and 19 November, including a five-year-old killed by accident. These included "at least" ten bodies found in two clandestine graves in Zumpango in the western state of Guerrero; police found the graves after they detained and interrogated on 18 November five presumed members of a gang called Los Rojos, in the district of Chilpancingo in Guerrero. A five-year-old boy was shot and killed while travelling in his father's car, caught in crossfire between police and criminals in the northern city of Gómez Palacio. Separately the state government of Nuevo León in northern Mexico announced on 19 November the arrest of a criminal "cell" of 19 or 24 members associated with The Zetas cartel, led by a man and a woman and including five working policemen and five teenagers. Investigators linked the group to "at least" 16 kidnappings, 12 killings and unspecified acts of extortion. Police confiscated items from them including cash, arms, cars, drugs and "planks for torture," Proceso reported, citing the state security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano.