Independence may have been averted in Scotland, but the polling results of the historic referendum to separate the country from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are inspiring and motivating secession movements around the world. From Flanders to Texas and from Okinawa to the Basque Country, people who support their region’s independence from the sovereign nation they live in are talking about bringing forward similar referendum actions.

 

The separatist sentiment has even reached Costa Rica, of all places. In Guanacaste, a region that not long ago was referred to as the “forgotten province,” one legislator celebrated the Scottish referendum of independence by posting a Twitter status update that exalted the events in the country that is known as Alba in Gaelic:

Today is a great day of autonomy for Scotland. Perhaps someday we will vote here in Guanacaste and return to our independence?

Legislator Ronal Vargas Araya added a peculiar hashtag #PartidodeNicoya, which happens to be the old name of this province. Oddly enough, the Nicoya Party at one point claimed more allegiance to Nicaragua than Costa Rica, but the people voted to be annexed to Costa Rica and thus stopped being autonomous in 1824. The annexation was later ratified more than once and eventually Costa Rica adopted the guanacaste tree as a national symbol. These days, the province’s motto is “De la patria por nuestra voluntad,” which can be translated to “we are of this country of our own will.”

 

Autonomy for Guanacaste is an idea that has tenuously floated among a select few over the last few years. As has been previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, Guanacaste has gone from “forgotten province” to a region dotted by luxury resorts, celebrity mansions, golf courses, and theme parks. The shift from an agriculture-based economy to the country’s top tourism destination has apparently given some people the idea that Guanacaste could survive as a tiny, independent Central American autonomous region. Legislator Vargas, who represents the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) political party, explained to Jimena Soto of online news daily CRHoy.com that:

Many people in Guanacaste share this sentiment (of autonomy), which is based on how the province has been abandoned by several government administrations in Costa Rica. Guanacaste was already the Nicoya Party when Costa Rica gained independence and [to a certain extent] retained autonomy; I think that if we consider 189 years of annexation, I don’t know if it has been positive at all.

For the record, no legislative proposals for autonomy or for an independence referendum have ever come from Guanacaste.