Costa Rican officials reported Monday that wetlands near the Nicaraguan border are recovering after suffering damages from dredging work carried out by Nicaragua in disputed territory.
Foreign Minister Manuel González accused Nicaragua of keeping Gil from seeing his lawyer and blocking consular services from the Costa Rican Embassy in Managua in violation of the Vienna Convention.
The harsh treatment of the Costa Rican man by Nicaraguan penitentiary officials has added another layer of tension to an already strained relationship between the two Central American neighbors.
Experts for Nicaragua said the amount of sediment varies between 190,000 and 250,000 tons per year, and that the sediment is reducing the depth of the river in a perpetual process that modifies its geography and makes navigation increasingly difficult.
A legal team representing the Nicaraguan government on Friday concluded a first round of hearings at the International Court of Justice by arguing that no evidence exists to show dredging on the San Juan River had caused environmental damage in the border area, as Costa Rica’s attorneys claimed earlier this week.
Costa Rica’s legal team on Wednesday wrapped up a first stage of hearings at The Hague-based International Court of Justice with closing arguments in a case against Nicaragua for the alleged invasion of three square kilometers of wetlands during dredging operations in the border area.
Costa Rican officials on Monday appeared before The Hague-based International Court of Justice to file a final written response in the ongoing territorial dispute with Nicaragua, the Foreign Ministry confirmed.
A week after Costa Rica celebrated the 66th anniversary of the abolition of its armed forces, President Luis Guillermo Solís criticized growing arms spending in Latin America during a speech at the Ibero-American Summit in Veracruz, Mexico, on Sunday. In his remarks Solís noted a “troubling” tendency in the region toward militarization.
