December 1, 1999
Web posted at: 11:05 p.m. EST (0405 GMT)

In this story: Honduran legislator: 'Not seeking confrontation' No military action planned RELATED STORIES, SITES

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaragua has initiated an economic and diplomatic offensive against Honduras, breaking commercial ties with its Central American neighbor over a maritime treaty between Honduras and Colombia.

The agreement grants each of those nations rights to Atlantic waters claimed by Nicaragua.

Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman also warned that Central American integration, a process under way for more than two years, had been jeopardized by the Honduran parliament's decision to formalize Colombia's territorial rights along Central America's continental shelf in the Caribbean.

"Nicaragua does not recognize this treaty," Aleman told a news conference in Managua hours after the Honduran Congress began ratifying the treaty in a special overnight legislative session.

Honduran legislators from five political parties voted 128-0 in favor of the treaty. In a speech prior to the vote, Honduran Foreign Minister Roberto Flores Bermudez told the legislators, "Honduras is not trying to hurt Nicaragua or any other country, but it won't permit that they harm its historically sacred sovereign rights."

Honduras and Colombia originally signed the Caribbean Sea Maritime Limits Treaty in 1986. In ratifying the accord early Wednesday, Honduras formally recognized 15 degrees north latitude as its frontier with Colombia, a demarcation that grants Colombia and Honduras thousands of square kilometers of Atlantic waters claimed by Nicaragua in a historical territorial dispute.

Honduran officials described the treaty as an effort to safeguard their own and Colombia's legitimate rights.

Honduran legislator: 'Not seeking confrontation'

"We are not seeking confrontation or hostilities; we are simply exercising our sovereign right to define our borders," Rafael Pineda, president of the Honduran Congress, told Reuters.

But Aleman said Honduras had submitted to "expansionist policies" in granting territorial rights to a country outside the region, undermining Central American efforts to form a political and economic union in the face of globalization.

Aleman called on the Nicaraguan National Assembly to pass a "sovereignty tax" that would impose special import tariffs on Honduran products.

Honduran exports would lose trade benefits extended to Central American producers, he said.

Nicaragua also will seek to reroute its exports through the Pacific port city of Corinto and to reestablish ferry service to El Salvador so that current trade routes through Honduras can be avoided, Aleman said.

No military action planned

Nicaragua issued a formal protest against the treaty and will pursue legal action to invalidate it, Aleman said.

No military action was planned, although "everything has been contemplated," Aleman said. "We have very capable armed forces, and a very capable police force, and everyone is at their posts."

Despite Nicaragua's protests, Colombia's foreign minister said the treaty would now be brought before his country's legislature for ratification.

Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez said territorial disputes with Nicaragua were put to rest under a 1928 treaty. While Nicaragua's Sandinista government of 1979-1990 declared that treaty invalid, reviving the dispute between the two countries, Colombia has maintained the treaty cannot be broken unilaterally.

"Colombia has nothing to discuss with its sister republic of Nicaragua," Fernandez told a local radio station. "The government of Colombia celebrates the fact that the Honduran legislature has unanimously ratified this treaty, which establishes maritime limits according to international law."

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