Costa Rica-Nicaragua Territorial Dispute: International Cour of Justice Rule in Costa Rica's Favor

The battle between Costa Rica and Nicaragua has finally ended, as the rainforested country of Central America won the territorial scrimmage over the border of San Juan river. The International Court of Justice handed all the rights to Costa Rica.

A United Nation court decided that Costa Rica has the power over the swamp side of the San Juan river as reported by The Guardian. The tribunal said that "Costa Rica has sovereignty over the disputed territory as defined by the court," the justices of ICJ administered in a statement read in the hearing.

The court also discredited Managua for breaching the authority of San Jose to sail in the said river as based on the 1858 treaty between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The committee of 16 jurists found that Nicaragua infringed and governed the terrain of its neighboring nation by digging three channels in the waters and building a "military presence."

Costa Rica celebrated the court's resolution in favor of them, but Nicaragua, on the other hand, felt sorry for their defeat. "The ICJ resolution ... constitutes total vindication of the national viewpoint on the integrity of our territory," President Luis Guillermo Solís of Costa Rica said in a news conference in San José.

US News added that the ICJ already proved the three-square-kilometer (1.2-square mile) part of terra firma, at the shore of the Caribbean Sea, is owned by Costa Rica. Hence, the debate between the Latin American countries finally ended.

The verdict examined the protests of the two countries by examining two different cases about the structures built closely at the "remote mouth of the river," where the mouth and passage were excavated by Nicaragua and the road along it was built by Costa Rica.

"Nicaragua's excavations and military presence on the Costa Rican territory also breached an order made by the world court in 2011 and that Nicaragua twice breached Costa Rica's navigation rights on the San Juan, which forms part of the two countries' border," Court President Ronny Abraham said.

The world court added that the two Latin American countries should decide how much Nicaragua should pay for the damages it has done to the newly Costa Rican owned territory. However, if they fail to follow the concerted agreement within a year, either of the two countries could ask the court to intervene.

Costa Rica glorified the ruling as an "overwhelming victory" for their country. "This is a great achievement for the people of Costa Rica, a vindication," President Solis said.

Watch the border dispute by AP Archive.