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The “sea scandal” broke out between Venezuela and Colombia. The Venezuelan government unilaterally announced the creation of a sea border with neighboring Colombia and issued an appropriate decree.
In turn, Colombia sent a note of protest to the government of Venezuela, which is contained on the official website of the Foreign Ministry of this country. The apple of contention was the waters of the Venezuelan Gulf in the region of the peninsula Guajira de Venezuela, which have been the object of a border dispute since the attainment of independence by Colombia and Venezuela from Spain in the 19th century.
Existing borders
The Spaniards did not draw boundaries in the Guajiros de Venezuela area, as the local Guajiro people resisted them bitterly. The boundary by land was established in 1941, but the issue of territorial waters remained unresolved. The bay is of strategic importance as a shipping route to the Caribbean Sea, through which oil is transported from the oil fields on Lake Maracaibo.
President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro said that the establishment of the border was unilaterally caused by issues of ensuring the security of the state. The head of the International Affairs Committee of the Senate of Colombia Jimmy Chamorro is confident that now “exhausting negotiations through diplomatic channels” will be required to resolve the incident.
Talks about La Guajira Venezolana
Official negotiations on the disputed zone in the Venezuelan Gulf between Colombia and Venezuela have been paralyzed for six years already. This is not the only territorial dispute, which is currently led by Bogota.
In 2013, Colombia refused to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice (UNSC) on the transfer of part of the Caribbean Sea area around the archipelago of San Andreas under the jurisdiction of Nicaragua, reports La Hora. However, the authorities of Nicaragua announced their intention to continue making claims in Colombia. The territorial dispute in the IPU between Colombia and Nicaragua regarding sovereignty over the San Andres archipelago, the islands of Providencia, Santa Catalina, and the Caribbean Sea have been underway since 2001.