Costa Rica and Nicaragua are neighboring nations in Central America with a longstanding boundary dispute along the San Juan River. The boundary dispute between the 2 countries heated up last week. A Nicaraguan commander led troops into Costa Rican territory. After being accused of an unprovoked invasion by the Costa Rican government, Nicaragua attributed the incursion on an error in Google Maps.
Nicaragua states boundary incursion happened due to Google Maps
Google Maps made an error causing Nicaraguan and Costa Rican security forces with lots of weapons to stand off across the San Juan River against each other. Eden Pastora, a Nicaraguan military commander using Google Maps, moved troops into an area along the border with Costa Rica. Pastora was accused of taking a Costa Rican flag down, setting up camp, putting a Nicaraguan flag up, dredging the San Juan River and even putting into Costa Rican territory sediment by Costa Rica. La Nacion, Costa Rica’s largest newspaper, said Pastora used Google Maps to justify the incursion despite the fact that official maps used by both countries show the disputed area is Costa Rican territory.
Chinchilla and Sandinistas both fault other people
Nicaragua and Costa Rica had issues begin to be worse last week when Laura chinchilla, president of Costa Rica, spoke to the nation. She said an act of aggression had been what the Nicaraguan army was trying to do. Intensely armed military police were sent to the uninhabited river island by her. About 18 miles inland from the Caribbean Sea is where the disputed territory is. Costa Rica was said to have been invading territory too by the Nicaraguan Sandinista govt. Costa Rica had been said to be threatening Nicaragua in a Chinchilla national address that President Daniel Ortega responded with.
Google getting caught within the fight
The mistake Google made has brought on a Costa Rica/Nicaragua border argument. It admits to making the mistake too. The company said that the border on Google Maps had been off by up to 2.7 kilometers because of an error in data obtained by the State Department. Google was told to change the map so the island is shown to belong to Nicaragua by Costa Rica. Not to be outdone, Nicaragua’s foreign ministry wrote Google the following day telling the company the map is fine just the way it’s.
Information from
Wired
wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/google-maps-error-blamed-for-nicaraguan-invasion/
Miami Herald
miamiherald.com/2010/11/05/1911356/a-river-runs-into-trouble-on-nicaragua.html
Search Engine Land
searchengineland.com/nicaragua-raids-costa-rica-blames-google-maps-54885
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