They would take a ship down to Panama, across the isthmus, and then take another ship north.

With a total surface area of 139,000 km2, Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American isthmus.

Mr. Oyarzún (Spain) said that Spain's claim to sovereignty over Gibraltar referred not only to the Rock of Gibraltar, which had been ceded under article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht, but also to the Isthmus, whose occupation by the United Kingdom it had never recognized.

Already weak and inefficient, prone to corruption, politicisation, lack of co ordination between departments, and outright intimidation of its officials, judicial systems across the isthmus have been an easy target for organised crime. Guatemala has been the most obvious victim so far, but Honduras also suffers all the similar conditions to be the next in line.