Honoring Our U.S. Protectorates: Baja Nuevo Bank...

Baja Nuevo Bank, also called the Petrel Islands, is a small, uninhabited coral reef that is located in the Western Caribbean Sea, just south of Cuba near the Serranilla Bank. The land is made of five small islands - West Breaker, Middle Cay, East Cay, Beacon Cay, and Northeast Breaker. The total land of the bank is about 16 miles long and 5.6 miles wide. It was first inhabited by the indigenous groups of Cochimí, Guaycura, and Pericú. They helped to develop the culture and ways of life. This island is made up of small islets, like Low Cay, that are barren and that many ships have been wrecked upon. The very first time it was located on a Dutch map was in 1634, but it wasn't named until 1654. Then in 1660, an English pirate named John Glover rediscovered it. Today, Columbia, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and US dispute its sovereignty in order to get exclusive fishing rights. The island is located in a modestly productive fishing zone with little hydrocarbon fuels and no mineral reserves that amount to anything usable.

A group of Jesuits created missions throughout the peninsula in 1697. The first one was Nuestra Señora de Loreto, who wanted to convert all of the indigenous people into Christians. As long as the indigenous people agreed to surrender to them, then they provided them with protections. In the 16th century, Hernán Cortés and Spanish soldiers arrived and built missions and other settlements that helped to construct the culture, religion, and local community there. Columbia claimed Bajo Nuevo Bank as part of their department of Archipelago of San Andréas Providencia and Santa Catalina. A 21-meter metal lighthouse tower was build on Low Cay, and is maintained by the Columbian Navy. Due to the provisions of the Guano Islands Act, the U.S., with the help of James W. Jennett, administered Baja Nuevoa Bank as an "unorganized, unincorporated United States territory" from 1856 to 1895. These claims by the U.S. were renounced in a treaty by Columbia in September of 1972, as most claims under the Guano Act were renounced in a treaty. In 1894, the USS Kearsarge wrecked on Roncador Bank.

After their independence, in 1931 Mexicans took control over Baja Nuevo Bank and divided it into Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur as two separate states. In 1974, Baja California became the 29th state in the US. From 1982 to 1986, Jamaica and Columbia entered bilateral agreements together, and they had an arrangement that allowed Jamaicans to fish in these territorial waters. Columbia denied their renewal of this agreement on the expiration date of August 1986. However, in 1993, Columbia and Jamaica established a "Joint Regime Area" in the Maritime Delimitation Treaty that allowed both countries to exploit living and nonliving resources in the waters between the two banks.

Even though all these countries claim the island as their own, on November 19, 2012, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously found that the Republic of Columbia had sovereignty over the Serrana Bank when Nicaragua tried to claim the islands. Although it is administered by Columbia, the U.S. continues to assert a claim to the island as well.