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INSIDECOSTARICA.COM
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COSTA RICA NEWS
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Friday 05
November 2010 |
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Nicaragua
Blames
Google
Maps For
Costa
Rica
Incursion
A
Nicaraguan
military
commander,
relying
on
Google
Maps,
moved
troops
into an
area
near San
Juan
river
along
the
border
between
his
country
and
Costa
Rica.
The
troops
are
accused
of
setting
up camp
there
and
raising
the
Nicaraguan
flag,
doing
work
dredging
work on
the
river
and
dumping
the
sediment
in Costa
Rican
territory.
La Nación, Costa Rica's largest newspaper, reports that Nicaragua's Edén
Pastora
used
Google
Maps to
"justify"
the
incursion
even
though
the
official
maps
used by
both
countries
indicate
the
territory
of Isla
Calero,
on the
south
side of
the San
Juan
river,
belongs
to Costa
Rica.
La
Nación
points
to a
disparity
between
the
borders
on Bing
and
Google.
We've
highlighted
the area
in
question:
A Google
spokesperson
was
unsure
what
caused
the
mapping
error.
Whatever
the
answer,
this
could
play
into
Bing's
next
marketing
strategy:
Bing,
the
search
engine
that
doesn't
cause
international
disputes.
You may
well
blame
the
Nicaraguan
military
for
using
Google
Maps --
which,
for all
its
usefulness
in
everyday
life, is
a
relatively
imprecise
tool for
official
exercises
near
borders.
But it's
been
little
more
than
three
years
since
the
British
Navy had
the same
problem,
straying
into
Iranian
waters
by
accident
(Iran
being
far more
dangerous
than
Costa
Rica,
which
doesn't
even
have a
full-time
military)
and
blaming
its
military-grade
GPS
equipment
for the
error.
A month
before
that,
the
Swiss
military
blundered
into
Lichtenstein
on a
training
exercise
--
because,
they
said, it
was
dark.
That, at
least,
was one
border
crossing
Google
Maps
might
have
prevented. | |
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