Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega on Thursday accused Colombia of encouraging Costa Rica to take over his country’s San Juan River.
The president stated, “I have to say this very frankly, and with pain in my heart, they want to take away the San Juan river,” reports newspaper El Tiempo.
Ortega claims that Colombia has also encouraged maritime treaties between Honduras and Costa Rica that would conflict with Nicaragua’s territory.
The president’s comments come in the midst of a maritime territory dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia that is being discussed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Recently Costa Rica asked the ICJ to intervene in the Colombia-Nicaragua border dispute.