For a political cartographer, the island of San Andrés is Colombia. For some nicaragüenses, it’s Nicaragua, part of an archipelago unfairly allotted to Colombia by a 1928 treaty which Nicaragua claims was signed under duress during U.S. occupation of the Central American country. And for a tribunal in The Hague currently dealing with the dispute, it is… to be decided. The archipelago - which also includes the islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina, as well as a number of islets, cays and sand banks - is located in the Caribbean, approximately 720km from the Colombian coast and 220km from Nicaragua. Early inhabitants included Puritans and pirates, Jamaican slaves, and Spanish, British, Dutch and French colonists. North American Baptists brought their beliefs to San Andrés in the 19th century, along with the wood from Alabama which was
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