Honduras–Nicaragua border
A border across Central America at its widest, from the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific over the mountains and down the Coco River through the Mosquitia lowlands to Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Caribbean. The world court has ruled on it twice: in 1960 upholding a Spanish king’s award on the land line, and in 2007 drawing the sea line.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 29 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Honduras →Nicaragua →
From Fonseca to Gracias a Dios
The border crosses the isthmus at its widest. From the Gulf of Fonseca it follows the Negro, Guasaule and Torondano rivers, property lines and the ridges of the Dipilto and Jalapa ranges, then straight lines to the Poteca, and finally the Coco for about 387 miles through Mosquitia, the largest area of level land in Central America, to Cabo Gracias a Dios.[1]
A treaty of 1894 left disputed points to the Government of Spain, and in 1906 the King of Spain gave an award on the part the boundary commission could not agree. Nicaragua contested it, and the two agreed to take the matter to the International Court of Justice, which found in 1960 that Nicaragua had freely accepted the arbitration and the award, and was bound by it.[2]
The sea line
In 1999 Nicaragua brought a case over the Caribbean. On 8 October 2007 the Court gave four small cays to Honduras, which had applied its laws and regulated fishing there, rejected a boundary along the 15th parallel, and drew a line bisecting the angle between the two coasts. Because silt from the Coco keeps pushing Cabo Gracias a Dios eastward, it started the sea line three nautical miles out from the river mouth and told the two to agree the rest.[3]
“the continuing eastward accretion of Cape Gracias a Dios”[3]
Timeline
18947 October 1894
Boundary treaty
Unsettled points are left to Spain.[2]
190623 December 1906
Spanish award
The King of Spain rules on the disputed sector.[2]
196018 November 1960
ICJ upholds award
Nicaragua is bound to give effect to it.[2]
20078 October 2007
Caribbean judgment
The Court draws the sea boundary.[3]
More borders
Nicaragua
Sources
- [1]International Boundary Study No. 36: Honduras – Nicaragua Boundary · US Department of State, Office of the Geographer · 12 October 1964
- [2]Arbitral Award Made by the King of Spain on 23 December 1906 (Honduras v. Nicaragua) · International Court of Justice
- [3]Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Honduras in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v. Honduras) · International Court of Justice
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.