Let’s say it first: what the Navy did near Serranilla Cay was well done. According to the Military Forces General Command, a naval unit spotted a foreign fishing vessel acting as a mother ship, launching pangas with divers. The San Andrés Coast Guard rapid reaction unit intercepted 44 Honduran citizens mid-operation. Seized: 20 pangas, 143 dive tanks and 241 kg of catch — 142 kg of queen conch, 77 of lobster, 16 of crab and 6 of fish. Migración Colombia expelled them on Sunday, November 1, after a San Andrés judge placed them at its disposal.

On Monday President Abelardo De La Espriella announced it with a line made for social media: “Colombia’s sovereignty must be respected!” One would like to just applaud. But anyone living on these islands reads the fine print.

The detail nobody highlighted

According to the Navy itself, as cited by Infobae, when the fishing vessel saw the authorities it “began to flee” and left the men in the small boats behind. The big ship — the one with an owner, the one financing the operation — got away. The divers, the last and often poorest link in the chain, stayed, and were sent back to Honduras within days. What about the shipowner, and whoever paid for the fuel and the 143 tanks? So far, nothing published says who owned that vessel or what diplomatic or legal steps will follow.

This is not to diminish the Coast Guard. It is because we have seen this story before, under different flags, on the same banks. Serranilla, Bajo Nuevo, Alicia and Quitasueño are far from San Andrés, but not from the pockets of Raizal artisanal fishermen who respect the conch closed season while others come in with scuba tanks to scrape the bottom.

Sovereignty is presence, not headlines

Just two weeks ago the Government promised a baselines decree for the archipelago. Fine. But no line drawn in Bogotá protects a reef hundreds of kilometers away without ships, fuel, radar and people on the water year-round. The questions for the Navy, Dimar, AUNAP and the Governor’s office are simple: how many days a year is there permanent presence at the northern cays? How many incursions are detected, and how many end in arrests? That data exists and should be public.

And closer to home: what happens to the 241 kg seized and the 20 pangas? Transparency about seized property is sovereignty too.

What the archipelago should demand

  • Disclosure of who owned the mother ship and what action is being taken against it, not just against the divers.
  • A public, at least twice-yearly report on patrols and interdictions at Serranilla, Bajo Nuevo and Quitasueño.
  • Raizal fishermen involved in surveillance and in designing the measures.
  • Clarity on custody and final destination of everything seized.

Expelling 44 men is a one-day story. Defending the Seaflower reserve is an everyday job. Islanders don’t need more exclamation marks from Bogotá; we need the mother ship not to get away again.

Armando Archbold, periodista del Externado con maestría en política, editor de WiNyuuz

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