“Untimely, politicized and expensive”: Germán Vargas Lleras spoke about Colombian defense against The Hague

Last Thursday, April 21, the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague on a Nicaraguan claim against Colombia for not respecting the maritime sovereignty of the Central American country was announced. The ruling was in favor of Nicaragua, and yet the defense of the national government expressed the result as a triumph.

“Colombia is satisfied with the outcome of the ruling because although it is true that the Court questions some of Colombia's actions and considers that we may have violated Nicaragua's rights, the truth is that most of the issues that Colombia wanted to take forward, it was able to take them forward. From that point of view, it is very satisfactory,” said former judge Carlos Arrieta, one of the defence officers before the Court of The Hague, to Tiempo.

But it was not the only official opinion on the subject, on April 21, when the ruling was heard, Foreign Minister and Vice President Martha Lucia Ramírez said in a video she published: “The important thing is that Nicaragua's aspirations did not prosper in its attempt to deny Colombia to have a presence and do activities in the Caribbean Sea south west... We have a decision that confirms that the measures taken by Colombia as part of its defense strategy were successful,” Ramirez said.

Another very different perception was on the part of the Nicaraguan regime, which was favored by the ruling of the Institutional Court. “The International Court of Justice has issued a final, final and mandatory judgment in which it agrees to Nicaragua by confirming that Colombia has implemented a state policy that has violated jurisdiction,” dictator Daniel Ortega said in a statement after the result had been known.

Well, the leader of Cambio Radical, politician and lawyer Germán Vargas Lleras referred to this situation, who in a column in the newspaper El Tiempo, pointed out how “untimely, politicized and expensive” the Colombian defense before the Hague Court, also emphasized that the Government did not express the result of the ruling objectively or frankness.

In his column, the leader of Cambio Radical highlighted aspects such as the transit in maritime areas of Colombian fishermen and military personnel, a fact that, according to Vice President Ramírez, is a right that the country still preserved, but Lleras pointed out the opposite. “The ruling orders the cessation of all the violations mentioned, which in practice amounts to the fact that we will no longer be able to continue fishing in the area, we will no longer be able to patrol under the argument of environmental conservation,” he said.

Others who did not escape the criticism of Vargas Lleras were those responsible for the defence before the International Court, such as former Judge Calos Arrieta and former President of the Court José Cepeda, who have been paid approximately 8.7 billion pesos since the litigation proceedings began in 2013.

“What they are surely and very satisfied with (Arrieta and Cepeda) is their juicy contracts worth more than 18 billion pesos that will remain in force until we lose, due to their poor, stubborn and failed arguments, until the last of our legitimate claims in this momentous litigation,” concluded Germán Vargas Lleras.

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