Airrecú, which means 'friendship' in the language of the region's Malekú Indians, has a population of about 5,000 people, comprised mainly of Costa Rican farmers and former Sandinista and Contra soldiers displaced after Nicaragua's civil war, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The 'Republic' even has its own President, Augusto Rodríguez, although not all of its inhabitants seem aware of this.
The small separatist movement is insisting that unless Costa Rica reclaims the land by the end of President Abel Pacheco's term (2006), they will declare independence. They took this stance after Costa Rica's supreme court rejected, last May, a motion they filed arguing that Airrecú is situated in Costa Rica and not Nicaragua. The rationale was that when the 1858 Cañas-Jerez treaty delineating the borders was mapped out in 1905, surveyors placed the border stones south of Lake Nicaragua because the swampland where the real frontier lies was not easily accessible.
Airrecú first sprang to prominence in 1995 when, in response to a bilateral border revision in March 1994 placing the land in Nicaragua, it declared independence. Newly 'elected' President Rodríguez sought UN protection and admission as a member of the world body. He was rebuffed. Managua promptly sent 100 troops into the area, armed with AK-47s and rocket-launchers, 'to protect national sovereignty'.
This is far less likely now. Although border disputes between Nicaragua and Costa Rica have a venerable history - navigation rights on the San Juan river, US-backed Contra forces operating out of Costa Rica during Nicaragua's civil war, and illegal immigration all spring readily to mind - both countries have subordinated disputes to the greater good of Central American integration and the US-Central American free-trade agreement (US-Cafta), currently under negotiation. This explains why they are at pains to ignore the rumblings of discontent from a tiny border swampland.
Still, it goes without saying that neither Nicaragua nor Costa Rica has any intention of recognising Airrecú. Nicaragua is seriously considering the commercial viability of building an inter-oceanic canal that would pass through Airrecú and on to Lake Managua and the Pacific. This would 'upstage' the Panama Canal by being twice the width and able to take post-Panamax size ships.
The Airrecú secession talk will no doubt drift into the annals of history. Separatists argue that neither Managua nor San José has ever shown any interest in them or provided any social assistance to the area whatsoever. Last August, the Miskito indigenous community levelled the same accusation at Managua, which it also claimed was plundering its natural resources. The Miskito threat to seek independence was far more significant as the Miskito lands, stretching along the Atlantic coast, account for 40% of Nicaragua's national territory. Twelve months later no further action has been taken.
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