Colombia Moves to Define San Andrés Waters and Hospital

Colombia’s health regulator took control of the Hospital Departamental de San Andrés for one year after finding that patients waited more than a year for surgery and 13 of 59 licensed services weren’t operating. The takeover came during President Abelardo de la Espriella’s first visit to the islands, alongside a promised decree over disputed waters and a clash with island leaders about public contracts.

Patients Pay for the Breakdown

Inspections from 29 September to 2 October found one general surgeon covering several services. Supersalud also counted 3,676 radiology studies awaiting review and a billing backlog of about 3,605 million pesos, or about US$1.1 million, as of December 2025. The regulator described the hospital’s reported financial statements as unreliable.

Supersalud announced the forced takeover on 16 October and named physician Marjorie Englehard Archbold as the special agent running the hospital. Patients facing delayed care sit at the sharp end of a system whose management and money now fall under national oversight. The article reports no self-organized or community-led response to the hospital crisis.

De la Espriella accused island officials of trying to block the takeover. He alleged that high-tech equipment sat in crates, that parallel payrolls existed and that a photocopier contract cost 60 million pesos, or about US$19,000, a month. He also alleged that cleaning and radiology contracts went to people linked to the governor’s office. The president hadn't published documents supporting those claims; the government said a forensic and technical team would audit every hospital contract.

At a confrontation recorded on video at the island’s naval base, De la Espriella told Governor Girley Ordóñez Bowie and Representative Elizabeth Jay-Pang Díaz that he knew about “the business dealings of your husband,” pointing at Jay-Pang, and about Coralina, the islands’ environmental authority. “The whole island knows that your husband is behind the contracting of the governor’s office, doctor,” he said. Both women tried to answer. They said they had asked the Health Ministry for hospital support, and Ordóñez replied, “that is not true” to the contract accusation. No formal statement from either official had been found by early 19 October; Jay-Pang’s husband wasn't named.

A Decree Over Contested Waters

From a Navy vessel in Colombian Caribbean waters on 18 October, De la Espriella said Colombia planned to sign a decree fixing the San Andrés archipelago’s baselines on 30 November. Baselines mark the official points used to measure territorial seas and other maritime zones. Law 10 of 4 August 1978 ordered Colombia to draw them; mainland coasts received baselines in 1984, while the archipelago remained pending.

The government says it will publish the coordinates on official nautical charts. “Colombia does not cede a nautical mile, does not cede a reef and does not abandon its fishermen,” De la Espriella said. The waters are disputed with Nicaragua. In November 2012, the International Court of Justice confirmed Colombian sovereignty over seven disputed cays but drew a boundary giving Nicaragua waters east of the main islands. Quitasueño and Serrana became enclaves surrounded by 12 nautical miles of territorial sea. In April 2022, the court found Colombia had violated Nicaragua’s sovereign rights in Nicaragua’s exclusive economic zone.

Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara said Colombia would offer Nicaragua good-faith dialogue on the premise that the 2012 ruling “is inapplicable in its literal form.” But baselines alone don't move an international boundary or cancel a court judgment. The coordinates and the government’s legal analysis weren't public, and no public response from Nicaragua’s government had been found by early 19 October.

Audits, Elections and Promises

On 18 October, Transparency Secretary Cristina Lombana asked the Procuraduría, the Contraloría and the Fiscalía to form a joint team to examine island contracts. She said she acted on the president’s direct instruction and requested that a special group work from Bogotá, off the island, to avoid local interference. The request doesn't itself open a case: each body is independent and decides whether to investigate. Whether they would accept remained unknown.

Ordóñez won a special election in July 2026 with 10,874 votes, or 64% of the total. Jay-Pang represents the islands in the House of Representatives for the Liberal Party, one of Colombia’s two traditional parties, and also represented them from 2018 to 2022. The vote put officials in office; it hasn't resolved the hospital’s service failures or the disputed contracting allegations.

At a security council on 16 October, the governor’s office listed commitments for more police, naval and air controls against drug trafficking, contraband, extortion and loan-sharking, plus 27,238 million pesos, about US$8.6 million, for roads on San Andrés and Providencia. When the road funding and two new hospital projects would reach the islands wasn't known. De la Espriella said national money sent to the islands would be monitored so that “not a peso is lost.”