Colombia to send note to US on warship presence in its waters

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Friday that his government will send a diplomatic note to the U.S. government, protesting the presence of a warship in its waters. Santos told a local TV that a vessel assigned to the U.S. navy was near Colombia's Quitasueno Bank in the Caribbean 24 hours ago without permission. "We will present an appropriate diplomatic note to the U.S. Embassy, to the American government," he said. The ship left after "our coast-guard vessel 'Almirante Padilla' corvette approached to the ship" and asked it to leave the Colombian territorial waters, said the president. Quitasueno is one of the keys of a Caribbean archipelago, over parts of which Colombia and Nicaragua disputed. The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in November 2012 to support Colombia's sovereignty over the Albuquerque, East, Southeast, Roncador, Serrana, Quitasueno, Serranilla and Bajo Sueno keys.