Land, island and maritime frontier dispute (El Salvador/Honduras: Nicaragua intervening

The origins of the boundary dispute between El Salvador and Honduras date back to the eighteenth century when colonial boundaries were ill defined. The issue continued to fester in the twentieth century and was a contributing factor in the outbreak of war between the two countries in 1969. The General Peace Treaty, signed by El Salvador and Honduras on October 30, 1980, in Lima, Peru, represented the first real breakthrough on this border dispute. The peace treaty stated that the two parties agreed to submit the boundary dispute to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague if they failed to reach a border agreement after five years of negotiations. By 1985 the two countries had not reached an agreement. In 1986 the case reached the ICJ, which handed down a ruling on September 11, 1992.Both countries accepted the ICJ decision, and a commission was established to decide the citizenship of residents of the bolsones. In this case the Court permitted a limited intervention to Nicaragua in a maritime aspect.