Original: In the mid-1980s , the government divided the department of Zelaya - consisting of the eastern half of the country - into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule within the Republic .
Simplified: In the mid-1980s , the government divided the eastern half of the country - the former department of Zelaya - into two autonomous regions and granted the African and indigenous people of the region limited self-rule .