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Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa

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Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa
Herdocia in 2016
Born(1957-08-01)August 1, 1957
León, Nicaragua
DiedJanuary 21, 2021(2021-01-21) (aged 63)
CitizenshipNicaragua
OccupationJurist
Children3

Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa (1 August 1957  – 21 January 2021) was a Nicaraguan jurist, specializing in international law, and diplomat. He held a variety of roles in Nicaraguan government, especially in the Foreign Ministry, across party lines as well as roles in international bodies including the United Nations and the Organization of American States. In the 1980s he worked on a number of peace processes in Central America. Also a legal scholar and professor, he was rector of the American College University.

Early life

Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa was born in León, Nicaragua,[1] on August 1, 1957.[2] Growing up his father was exiled in Mexico during the beginning of Anastasio Somoza García’s regime.[3] Herdocia studied at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (León), studying with prominent faculty including Edgardo Buitrago, activist Rafael Ortega Aguilar, and agriculture specialist Haydée Flores.[3] He graduated in 1981 as a lawyer and notary public.[2][4] He also completed postgraduate studies in international law at the Institute for International Law in The Hague and in international negotiations at the Matías Romero Institute in Mexico.[2]

Career

In the 1980s, he was a negotiator in peace processes, including for the Contadora Group that sought to address the Central American armed conflicts in the early '80s.[1] This culminated in the August 6, 1986 Act of Contadora for Peace and Cooperation in Central America.[1] He was also a negotiator in the Esquipulas I and II Peace Agreement (also known as the Central American Peace Accords).[1][5] Signed on August 7, 1987, this institutionalized the meeting of Central American Presidents and launched the Central American Parliament initiative.[1]

Herdocia remained in government after the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government lost power in 1990, continuing to serve in the Foreign Ministry of the new conservative government of Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, becoming a source of “institutional memory”.[3][5] He helped establish and served as an advisor and coordinator (1985 to 1997) for the Territorial Commission, an advisory body of Nicaraguan ministers, vice-ministers and advisors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that, until 2007, functioned to develop a consensus national territorial policy that could then be advanced in available regional and global forums.[2] Also in this capacity he worked on the creation of the Central American Integration System (SICA), established in 1993,[5] developed from the 1991 Protocol of Tegucigalpa which Herdocia helped draft.[6] He became political advisor and legal director for the Secretary-General of SICA from 1997 to 2001 and in 2000 was elevated to acting Secretary-General for the organization.[7][4]

From 1997 to 2001, he served on the International Law Commission of the United Nations, the UN’s highest body on international law.[8] Elected by the General Assembly, Herdocia was the first (and as of 2016 remained the only) Nicaraguan to be included on the 34-member committee.[9]

Committed to issues of Nicaraguan sovereignty and territorial integrity, Herdocia was a negotiator in border disputes with Colombia and Costa Rica, both land-based and maritime,[5] and a Nicaraguan representative to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on border disputes.[1] He has written four books on related issues and contributed to the Dictionary of International Law.[2] In 2016, he told La Prensa that the history of external incursions Nicaragua has faced motivated his career in international law: “I felt there was a need to work and structure the strengthening of legal knowledge to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.”[2] He advanced a new theory of the border dispute with Colombia that reenvisioned Nicaraguan territory in maritime space (the basis for his 2013 book, La otra Nicaragua en el mar, or The Other Nicaragua in the Sea, with Norman José Caldera Cardenal). Herdocia’s thesis was cited in a landmark 2012 ICJ ruling [Es] establishing Nicaraguan sovereignty over a maritime shelf extending over 180,000 square kilometers.[10] In 2016, Nicaragua again prevailed before the ICJ in a conflict with Colombia using a legal strategy Herdocia and colleagues had helped develop across domestic political lines over the span of decades, although Herdocia was no longer representing Nicaragua in the case.[11] During the presidency of Enrique Bolaños, Herdocia was president of the legal committee of the Organization of American States (OAS) and legal advisor to the United Nations (UN).[5] When FSLN President Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007, Herdocia was removed from Nicaragua’s legal teams.[7]

In 2018, Herdocia was an advisor to the Episcopal Conference of Catholic bishops during the National Dialogue that followed the anti-government protests and repression by the Ortega government.[5]

As of 2021, Herdocia was rector of the American College University (AC) and a member of the editorial board of the newspaper La Prensa.[5]

Personal life

Herdocia was married with three children.[12] He died of a heart attack on 21 January 2021.[1]

Works

  • Sacasa, Mauricio Herdocia (2003). La obra de la Comisión de derecho internacional de las Naciones Unidas en el quinquenio, 1997-2001: el aporte global de América Latina (in Spanish). Managua: Imprimatur Artes Gráficas. ISBN 978-99924-54-17-6. Retrieved 23 January 2021.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Fallece Mauricio Herdocia, experto en derecho internacional". 100% Noticias (in Spanish). January 21, 2021. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Mauricio Herdocia, un referente para entender los juicios contra Nicaragua". La Prensa (in Spanish). 2016. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Córdoba, Mathilde (February 9, 2014). "Entró a la diplomacia por la puerta grande". El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 9, 2019. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  4. ^ a b "Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa" (PDF). OAS. 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Álvarez, Leonor (2021-01-21). "Fallece Mauricio Herdocia, jurista y experto en relaciones internacionales". La Prensa (in Spanish). Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  6. ^ "Herdocia y Santamaría acompañan conmemoración de los 30 años de Esquipulas II". www.sica.int (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  7. ^ a b "Muere en Nicaragua un creador y exsecretario general interino del SICA". SWI swissinfo.ch (in Spanish). EFE. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  8. ^ Blanco, Benjamin (2001-10-22). "Primer nica que ostenta alto puesto ante la ONU". La Prensa (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 26, 2017. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  9. ^ Mendieta, Emiliano Chamorro (2016-01-23). "Suena nombre de Herdocia para la CIJ". La Prensa (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  10. ^ "Nicaragua ganó mar colombiano". www.sica.int. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  11. ^ Miranda Aburto, Wilfredo (2016-03-18). "Victoria en La Haya: una política de Estado". Confidencial (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-01-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ Le Louis, Fabrice (December 6, 2015). "Mauricio Herdocia: "En Nicaragua hay muchas brenas que llenar"". La Prensa (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 26, 2017.
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