Colombia Plans San Andrés Sea Decree Amid Dispute

Colombia plans to sign a decree fixing the San Andrés archipelago’s baselines on 30 November, a move involving waters disputed with Nicaragua and Colombia’s maritime claims. President Abelardo de la Espriella announced the plan on 18 October aboard a Navy vessel in Colombian Caribbean waters, during his first visit to the islands, which ran from 16 to 18 October.

The maritime dispute

Baselines provide the official points for measuring a country’s territorial sea and other maritime zones. Law 10 of 4 August 1978 directed Colombia to draw them. Colombia set baselines for its mainland coasts in 1984, but those for 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 our fishermen,” De la Espriella said.

The decree relates to a dispute in which the International Court of Justice confirmed Colombian sovereignty over seven disputed cays in November 2012, while setting a boundary that gave 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 that 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.”

Baselines alone don’t shift an international boundary or cancel a court judgment. The government hadn’t made public the coordinates or its legal analysis of how they relate to the 2012 and 2022 rulings. By early 19 October, no public response from Nicaragua’s government had been found.

Hospital takeover and contract scrutiny

The National Health Superintendency, Supersalud, announced a one-year forced takeover of the Hospital Departamental de San Andrés on 16 October. Inspections from 29 September to 2 October found that 13 of the hospital’s 59 licensed services weren’t operating, one general surgeon was covering several services, and patients waited more than a year for surgery.

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 appointed physician Marjorie Englehard Archbold as the special agent running the hospital and called its reported financial statements unreliable.

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 officials steered cleaning and radiology contracts to people linked to the governor’s office. The president hadn’t published documents supporting the 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 addressed Governor Girley Ordóñez Bowie and Representative Elizabeth Jay-Pang Díaz. Pointing at Jay-Pang, he said he knew about “the business dealings of your husband,” and also raised 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 respond. They said they had asked the Health Ministry for hospital support, while Ordóñez replied “that is not true” to the contract accusation. By early 19 October, no formal statement from either official had been found; Jay-Pang’s husband wasn’t named.

National oversight and island commitments

On 18 October, Transparency Secretary Cristina Lombana asked the Procuraduría, the Contraloría and the Fiscalía to form a joint team to examine island contracts. Lombana, a former Supreme Court justice who joined the presidency that month, said she acted on the president’s direct instruction and asked for a special group to 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 the request remained unknown.

At a security council on 16 October, the governor’s office listed commitments: more police, naval and air controls against drug trafficking, contraband, extortion and loan-sharking, and 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.

The Transport Ministry said repairs at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla airport addressed leaking roofs, a broken escalator and damaged restrooms. It reported that the number of air-conditioning units in working order rose from seven partly working to 17 fully working, including two new units, and all eight restroom blocks returned to service. The ministry said it would plan modernization with Aerocivil and the National Infrastructure Agency; no budget or timetable had been published.