The Moskitians and the ‘indivisible’ State of the Nicaraguans

Whenever the Nicaraguans talk about the Moskitian Independence sentiment, they always try to brush it aside or finish their statement by quoting that "Nicaragua is an independent, free, sovereign, unitary, and indivisible State." It is the first sentence of the sixth article of their constitution.

To understand this, we must first understand what a state is.

Strictly speaking, a state is the government; it is the body with the authority to govern a people and their territory.

The existence of a government begins when a nation forms a social contract (agreement), either explicitly or tacitly, to be governed by a certain set of rules, laws, norms, etc. This social contract allows the nation to bestow or lend its authority and consent to the state (government), which uses that authority and consent in return to provide security to the nation. Therefore, the authority of a state extends as far as it is accepted. This is what is called its jurisdiction: the power or right to exercise authority, which, again, does not emanate from the state itself but solely from those (the people) that it governs.

Now, to say that a state is unitary (one) and indivisible (unable to be divided or separated), it is strictly to say that it is a single state (one governing body) and that its authority cannot reside in or be exercised by two or more different bodies simultaneously. But it can never, under any circumstances, be said to mean that the people cannot renounce their social contract (agreement) with the state.

The renunciation of the social contract is what we know as a renunciation of citizenship. When a person or persons renounce their citizenship from a state, it is because they withdraw their authority from it and, consequently, the obligation and right of the state to govern or offer them protection. For example, when the Thirteenth Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, it was because they were renouncing their citizenship in that kingdom. But that did not divide the British State, which continued to exist independently and effectively, governing those who continued their social contract with it.

Now, once the Moskitian nation creates its own state by explicitly or tacitly bestowing its own authority upon and allegiance to it, the Moskitian State will use that authority in return to protect and govern the Moskitian nation alone. It will not be another State claiming to have authority over the Nicaraguan people but solely over the Moskitian nation, which will mean two different governing bodies exercising their own authority independently over their own people, two different people. So, if the Nicaraguans were lied to and deceived about their own rights, that ignorance of theirs cannot be used to hold the Moskitian nation to subjection to their own state, a nation whose rights, natural and legal, precede that state of theirs.