100Kms Of Northern Border Unprotected
More than 100 kilometres of the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua are unprotected, The unprotected border runs between Tiricias de San Carlos and Remolinito de Sarapiquí. "It is no man's land and a passageway for a great number of undocumented", area residents say.

The reason: there is no effective police force in the area.

The only Costa Rican police post is strategically located at the mouth of the Sarapiquí river, metres from the San Juan river, which is the only effective control post of the natural border with Nicaragua.

However, the vigilance is symbolic more than effective, as the two Fuerza Pública officers stationed there are armed with M-16 rifles, but no boat to patrol or pursue anyone and no telephone to call for help.

The two officers are stationed there fro 15 days at a time, cut off from their families, until their replacements arrive.

The officers don't even have a horse. Their only method of transportation is on foot and subject to losing their food rations, radios, ammunition and personal belongings to criminals. And are forced to work in a dilapidated shelter that was built 26 years ago and has had poor maintenance since.

The conditions at the post do not allow the officers to impede, less chase, illegals who cross the border by boat across the San Juan river from Nicaragua.

In addition, the navigational rights of the river are in dispute, a case that is now before the International Court at the Hague. The San Juan river clearly belongs to Nicaragua. The dispute is not over the ownership, but, rather over navigational rights as Nicaraguan officials have impeded Costa Rican officials from patrolling the river.

The "policia de fronteras" (border police) is one of the most abandoned units of the Fuerza Pública, according to its director, José Fabio Pizarro, who took over the command of the unit two months ago.

Pizarro says that he pushing his superiors, though he recognizes his limitations, for more resources. Pizarro is asking for more boats and officers in an attempt to bolster his unit and to properly patrol the border.

For now, the unit has to do with that it has, not much, and has to depend on the generosity of area residents in the event of emergencies.