A NEW NATION?

Tim Rogers.

• Central American separatists prepare for rebirth of Airrecú.

Leaders of a separatist movement on Costa Rica’s northern border are warning the government that it is running out of time to reclaim land lost to Nicaragua 100 years ago, before the breakaway Republic of Airrecú is born.

Sandwiched on a swampy 440 square-kilometer strip of disputed borderland between the shark-infested waters of Lake Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the area is home to 5,000 impoverished farmers, crocodile poachers and former Sandinista and Contra soldiers. Although Nicaragua protected the land as Los Guatuzos Nature Reserve in 1990, the Airrecú movement claims that fine print in the 1858 Cañas-Jerez border treaty clearly shows that the land belongs to Costa Rica (LP, Sept. 23, 2002).

The group filed a motion with Costa Rica’s Supreme Court in July 2002, arguing that border stones south of Lake Nicaragua are placed several miles too far inside Costa Rican territory and in violation of the Constitution. The Court shot down the motion in a 4-3 vote, and archived the case in May this year.

Left with few legal options, Airrecú’s leaders are warning the Costa Rican government that it has until the end of President Abel Pacheco’s term in office (2006) to correct the century-old border mistake and reclaim the land, or the separatists will do it instead.

"Airrecú is already an independent nation without international recognition," said Omar Jaén, the co-founder and honorary Vice President of the Airrecú movement. "The people on this land live more independently than most countries that have recognition."

Despite the landmines, re-armed bands of soldiers and zero infrastructure, Jaén claims an independent Airrecú could base a sustainable economy on tourism, luring curious and adventurous travelers with its novelty and untouched natural beauty, home to exotic species of wetland birds and jaguars.

"Who wouldn’t want to visit a new and unknown country?" asked Jaén. "Some of the most successful countries in the world are the smallest ones."

Jaén, a Latin American border expert, first learned of the misplaced border stones from his father, a Nicaraguan surveyor. After investigating the problem himself, Jaén teamed up with Costa Rican doctor Augusto Rodríguez — Airrecú’s self-proclaimed President — in 1995, and the two decided the best solution was to form the Republic of Airrecú (the Malekú Indian word for friendship).

"This land does not belong to Nicaragua, and Costa Rica lost its right to it by never claiming the territory as part of the country," Jaén said.

According to the Cañas-Jerez Treaty, the border should parallel the southern coast of Lake Nicaragua at a distance of 3.2 kilometers. However, explains Jaén, border surveyors in 1905 were forced to put the 2.4 meter-tall stones several miles inside Costa Rican territory because the swampland through which the border passes floods during the rainy season and would have submerged the stones.

As a result, surveyors who navigated the snake-infested area by boat put the stones in the ground 5.7 kilometers south of the real border as "provisional markers," on the first piece of dry land they found. These markers, Jaén insists, were never intended to delineate the border, but to serve as orientation stones for future surveyors.

Over time, however, the stones were mistaken by both governments as actual "border markers," and the line between the two countries was erroneously drawn on maps as two straight lines intersecting in a "V" at marker "13-A," 9 kilometers south of Lake Nicaragua. The Costa Rican Geographical Institute, using satellite technology, recently confirmed the stone’s incorrect distance from Lake Nicaragua.

The aspiring nation — boasting its own flag and national anthem — first attempted independence in 1995, but failed to receive United Nations recognition, and was threatened with military aggression by Nicaragua, quickly silencing further promotion of the breakaway republic.

However, Jaén admits that the country’s planning has continued secretly, and recent developments in Costa Rica have now provided Airrecú with a second chance to win independence.

At the end of last year, the Costa Rican Attorney General’s Office issued the Costa Rican northern border town of México de Upala with demolition and evacuation orders, claiming that the 250-year-old town was built illegally inside the 2 kilometer border buffer owned and protected by the state. The 2,500 residents resisted the order, insisting that the border running through their town is incorrectly drawn and that they are living well outside the area of state-owned borderland.

Costa Rican Attorney General of International Affairs Francisco Villalobos called the border "an historic error," adding, "Costa Rica wants this land back."

President Pacheco bowed to pressure and issued México de Upala a presidential pardon November 2002 as Congress formed a legislative commission to investigate the issue and present its findings to lawmakers. However, eight months later, lawmakers have not resolved the problem and residents are starting to worry what will happen when the pardon expires in 2006.

"There is no going back now; this problem has gone unnoticed for 100 years, but now that the Costa Rican government has started to recognize something is wrong, it must do something to fix it," said Dr. Rodríguez.

The Airrecú leaders claim that separatists are willing to employ violence to achieve their independence, if diplomacy and legal channels fail. "The people of Airrecú have guns and training [in war]; this is a real threat," Jaén said. "This is a forgotten land of former soldiers, and the UN and the Organization of American States must recognize the injustice and prevent a war, rather than try to put out a fire later."

Jaén — who claims he has rejected past offers of armed support from "international groups" — said he is trying to calm tensions among followers, stressing that history, not Ak-47s, will help Airrecú achieve independence.

But so far, there does not appear to be any political will in Managua or San José to fix the problem. "We are waiting for the appropriate moment," Jaén said. "The people of Airrecú are waiting for us to give them the green light."