Ann Marie Hinckley and Dr. David P. Crandall
The Nicaraguan Revolution ended nearly fifteen years ago, however, the political, economic, and cultural effects resulting from the war continue. These effects are keenly felt in the border regions of Costa Rica. Border regions are frequently turbulent because within them 70% of the world’s smallest wars are fought. These wars bring with them many problems including drug and arms trafficking, casualties, refugees and displaced peoples . The border region between Nicaragua and Costa Rica is unique in that many aspects of the Nicaraguan Revolution carry over and continue to effect individual and general perceptions of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica.
My project began as a follow up to an incident I witnessed during the summer of 1995 in the Costa Rican border community of Jomusa. Jomusa is located two kilometers south of the Nicaraguan border in the region of Upala. Jomusa is a very poor community which is still waiting to receive potable water and electricity. It is a settlement of the Istituto Desarrollo Agrario (IDA) of the Costa Rican government where the government gives small plots of land to poor farmers. Since 1980, 75 Costa Rican families have lived, cultivated, and raised cattle on a 231 square kilometer area of IDA land which was subsequently discovered to be Nicaraguan territory due to a mapping error.
In February of 1995 a group of Jomusa neighbors as a protest to the politics of both governments claimed this area of land to be the independent republic of Airrecu, which means friendship in the Indian language of Maleku. Airrecu was intended to be a place of refuge for both Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans. The members of the new republic petitioned the United Nations for recognition and protection in establishing Airrecu. The UN declined. That these people wanted the Nicaraguan land to be a new republic sparked tension in Managua and the Sandinista Popular Army sent troops to Jomusa. In an effort to settle the conflict, Costa Rica’s president Jose Maria Figueres told Nicaragua to reclaim their land, denying the existence of Airrecu. The Nicaraguan government ordered the Costa Rican citizens to vacate the land. By 7 July, 1995 the people had to leave. I watched silently as the people were loaded onto large cattle trucks and driven away into an unknown future. The citizens were relocated to another government farm in a settlement near Aguas Negras, some 65 kilometers from Jomusa. They left all of the crops they had spent the last several months planting and tending, and left their lives of the past fifteen years.
In Aguas Negras, the relocated people desired to name their new settlement Airrecu also, but the government would not allow the name due to the problems it had already caused. They named their area La Nueva Esperanza, The New Hope, but the land has not been a new hope. The people have great desires to return to their former area of land. However, to return, they would need to become Nicaraguan citizens. The main reason people desire to return is because the land they were given is not producing, and there is not enough room for their cattle. They spend a great deal of money on fertilizers and cattle food to little success. In Jomusa, the land is fertile, and there is ample room for their cattle.
Many Nicaraguans relocate to Costa Rica looking for a more stable future. Despite Nicaragua being Central America’s richest country in natural resources, following the Nicaraguan Revolution, the economy was severally crippled. 70% of the Nicaraguan population lives in poverty. Costa Rica, however, has been enjoying a relatively stable economy. For example, in 1991 an agricultural worker earned 12 times more in Costa Rica than in Nicaragua, and cattle were worth 5 times more in Costa Rica than in Nicaragua.1 The border area of Jomusa sees a very fluid exchange of people because the border is not permanently controlled and people are free to come and go. This can cause varying health and safety problems for the region. People bring in diseases which are unregulated because there is no health facility in the area, and ex-soldiers who have not been reassimilated into civilian life can cause problems. This was seen with the recent kidnappings of the Swiss and German tourists not far from where I was working. Kidnappers frequently are ex-soldiers who, with their knowledge of jungle terrain, can hide themselves and their captives for long periods of time. This is a problem in Central America generally as thousands of demobilized soldiers resulting from many of the Figure A regional wars of the 1980’s fail to find a new place in society.2
Whereas my study began by looking at the specific incident of Airrecu, my project evolved to see a more general trend in the attitudes Costa Ricans have for Nicaraguans. As a result of the wars and atrocities the area has seen, Costa Ricans as a whole hold a very negative regard for Nicaraguans, and a general fear of Nicaragua. Many of the people I interviewed expressed anxiety about Nicaraguans because they are afraid of being kidnapped or assaulted.
Costa Ricans generally blame their problems on the Nicas, because they are an easy scape goat. The Nicaraguans are a major driving force behind the Costa Rican economy and essential to the coffee and banana cultivation. They are willing to perform the hard labor necessary involved in the work for low wages, since it is more money than they could make in their own country. Many Costa Ricans are not willing to do such work anymore, so the Ministry of Labor issues temporary work permits to hire migrant workers, or workers enter illegally. However, these people which contribute greatly to Costa Rica’s economic backbone are described by the Costa Ricans as blood-thirsty, dirty, lazy people with hot blood and cold hearts.
The bigotry and discrimination is held on a personal level and not on an institutional level. The Costa Rican government is a very humanitarian government which has always tried to help those in need. It legislates better working conditions for the Nicaraguans, protects their civil rights, and allows these illegal immigrants to attend schools and receive emergency medical care. As with the attitudes Costa Rican hold for Nicaraguans, I see it as a result of the near culture of war in Nicaragua resulting from four decades of Somoza control. The majority of the Nicaraguans are hard working people, but the images of the few trouble makers continue to make a larger impression in the collective minds and the attitudes of the Costa Ricans. This is seen in the example of the ex-soldiers. Costa Ricans do not want to take responsibility for their problems and took to someone to blame for situations of increased crime and violence, of which 90% is committed by Costa Ricans themselves. The Nicaraguans as a people are not 3 to blame for these situations . Their war is over, but they continue to be victims. Understanding this, it becomes more clear as to why the people of this border region, the majority of which are of Nicaraguan ancestry desired their own republic by the name of “friendship”.
References
- Giro, Pascal O. and Bernard Q. Nietsschmann. “The Rio San Juan.” National Geographic Research and Exploration 8(l):52-63; 1992.
- McPhaul, John. “Kidnappings: Fallout from Region’s Wars.” The Tico Times 29 March 1996:4.
- Francis, Lawrence. “Anti-Nicaraguan Prejudice Persists.” The Tico Times 9 February 1996: 14.