Coto War

The Coto War (Guerra de Coto) was a conflict between Panama and Costa Rica fought between 21 February and 5 March 1921. The causa belli when an expeditionary force led by Colonel Héctor Zúñiga Mora occupying on behalf of Costa Rica the town of Pueblo Nuevo de Coto, a hamlet on the banks of the river of the same name that belonged at that time to the district of Alanje, in the Panamanian province of Chiriquí. Zuñiga justified the incursion by the fact that there was no definite border between Costa Rica and Panama.

The initial event ignited nationalism both in Costa Rica and in Panama. In the capital, San José, and in the rest of Costa Rica, volunteers and regular forces were organized to fought against the Panamanians. In Panama, especially in Chiriqui, which had jurisdiction of the hamlet, armed groups were organized that managed to repel the Costa Rican forces. Then, the war would move to the north, in the province of Bocas del Toro, where Costa Rica raided its troops and advanced without further resistance.

Although Panama won the war in the warlike aspect, it had to renounce the territory of Coto under pressure from the United States, under the White Ruling, who in defense of the interests of their banana companies took drastic measures to cut the conflict.

Background
The border between Panama and Costa Rica was not well defined since colonial times. In 1573, Felipe II of Spain signed a contract with Captain Diego de Artiesa y Chirinos. In this contract he established that the boundary with Costa Rica to the south extended, "everything that runs the land to the province of Veragua (west of Panama)", however the boundaries of Veragua were never clearly defined at that time and with As time passed, this territory changed in length. On occasion, he referred to Cape Gracias a Dios between Honduras and Nicaragua as the limit of the territories of North and South America.

From 1821 the Isthmus of Panama had decided to join the Great Colombia. In 1836 there was the so-called "Colombian Usurpation" in which this country took over the territory that is currently Bocas del Toro, which belonged to Costa Rica and could not do anything about it. In 1856, 1865 and 1873 bordering treaties were made, but they were not ratified by both governments. In 1880, Colombia seized Cocales de Burica, for this reason, on December 25, 1880, the representatives of Costa Rica and Colombia, decided to submit the arbitration of this boundary demarcation to Alfonso XII of Spain, but this treaty was rejected by Colombia.

In 1886, in Bogotá, a new convention was signed, which would be arbitrated by the then president of France, Emile Loubet. On September 11, 1900, the Loubet Judgment was issued, but it was not accepted by Costa Rica, since it harmed this country and granted Colombia more disputed territory.

In 1905, after the separation of Panama from Colombian territory, an attempt was made to sign a treaty with the new Panamanian government, but it was not ratified by it. In 1914, new negotiations were held, where the arbitration was conducted by the United States Attorney General. It was known as the Fallo White, dictated on September 12, 1914, where the Panamanian government was dissatisfied with the resolution, since this ruling benefited Costa Rica. Thus the status quo was maintained for many years until the beginning of the war.

Combats
The war was fought in two places. The first place was in Pueblo Nuevo de Coto and around the Coto River in the Pacific sector. In this area the Costa Rican forces suffered defeat. The second scenario is in the Atlantic, to the west of the province of Bocas del Toro, although without confrontations, the Costa Ricans obtained the victory.

On February 22, the Panamanian forces under the command of Captain Juan B. Grimaldo, Lieutenant Francisco Benítez and Second Lieutenant Joaquín Amaya, together with 50 or 60 policemen from David, departed by train to La Concepción, and then continue to La Pita, Divalá and Progreso, to travel on foot to Coto. The Chiricans organized in David the First Company of Volunteers of David, that would leave once the train returned of the Conception; Under the command of Colonel Laureano Gazca, a contingent called "The 13 Volunteers of Bugaba" left La Concepción.

Within the country there was a serious problem with obtaining weapons, for two reasons: the dissolution of the Panamanian army commanded by General Esteban Huertas in 1904, for fear of a coup d'état; and the demand of the US authorities for the delivery of long-range weapons. This was done in 1915, but President Belisario Porras secretly kept 50 rifles in the Presidency building with their respective ammunition, so with this arsenal and other weapons, President Porras ordered the general mobilization for undeclared war. The president appointed General Manuel Quintero Villareal (veteran of the War of a Thousand Days) as head of the police forces that would go to Chiriqui.

In the early hours of February 23, 53 police officers and four officers departed from the English Wharf in the city of Panama in the steam Veraguas under the command of Quintero and in the company of the governor of the province of Panama, Rodolfo Estripeaut. After 44 hours of crossing, General Quintero and his men arrived at Rabo de Puerco (today Puerto Armuelles). Quintero established his operations center there and ordered the departure of the 53 policemen on a train from the Panama Sugar Company to Progreso to continue on foot to Coto. This troop was under the command of second lieutenant Justiniano Mejías, with the order to take Coto by all necessary means. Each of the men was armed with a 30-caliber Springfield carbine and two trimmings of 60 shots each.

After crossing several rivers, swamps and other obstacles on foot, the 53 officers and officers met on February 26 on the Lagarto River, with the police officers coming from David and the 13 volunteers from Bugaba, who were armed with machetes and two Shotguns All were under the command of Mejías. Everyone arrived at Coto at dawn on February 27.

While the Panamanians organized themselves to carry out their orders, two Costa Ricans who were touring the place were captured. Surprisingly, one of them turned out to be Colonel Zuniga Mora, chief of the Costa Rican expedition, and the other was Colonel Daniel González. Both assured that they were hunting. Mejías demanded that Zúniga Mora surrender the desatacamento; the Costa Rican expeditionaries had no choice. The Panamanians had recovered Coto without combat, they had the Ticos as prisoners and they were reinforced with more rifles and ammunition.

Mejías feared the arrival of Costa Rican reinforcements along the Coto River, so he ordered them to explore the place, locate the sentinels and take positions between the forests and mangroves. On the afternoon of the 27th the motorboat La Sultana was approaching with Costa Rican troops who were cheering their country and its president Julio Acosta, confident that the detachment of Zúñiga Mora would receive them. At the sound of a bugle, the Panamanians opened fire with rifles and within minutes the motorboat ran aground and its crew surrendered with the result of five dead, nine wounded and 54 prisoners. It was arranged that the wounded and prisoners were taken in La Sultana to Rabo de Puerco. A group of Chiricans under Colonel Gace, had the mission to take the ship and leave on the morning of February 28 to navigate the Golfo Dulce until reaching the destination.

On the morning of March 1, the Costa Rican ship La Estrella arrived, ignoring what happened and had an outcome similar to that of La Sultana. In the fight there were 27 dead, numerous wounded and a great amount of arms fell into Panamanian hands, distributing themselves among the First Company of Volunteers of David.

At sunset that day another ship arrived, La Esperanza with 56 soldiers and volunteers, also ignored that the men of Zúñiga Mora were not waiting for them, the ignorance was such that when they arrived, a phonograph was played on the bow of the ship touching the notes of the national anthem of Costa Rica; this started a shootout killing the one who put the phonogram. Daniel Herrera, who commanded the ship thought it was a mistake but it was not and followed the shooting leaving.

Outcome
Since March 4, the war takes an unexpected turn. In the bay of Charco Azul, in Chiriquí, the battleship Pennsylvania appeared with orders to protect the citizens and American interests in the area. Also appeared the cruise Sacramento on the Atlantic coast on March 5. The United States demanded to both countries the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of belligerent forces. With no other options, the men of both commandos abandoned their positions.

In David the Panamanian expeditionaries were received as heroes by the population and a smiliar tribute was received in the capital by General Quintero and his men by President Porras and by the citizenship.

Panama was forced by the United States to accept the White ruling and to cede the Coto region to Costa Rica, the border problems between both countries were definitively overcome with the signing of the Arias-Calderón treaty in 1941.