There is an interesting story developing on the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan army has moved onto a piece of land that Costa Rica claims as theirs, but that Nicaragua also claims as theirs. The Costa Rican government is currently taking its case to the UN and the International Court of Justice to force Nicaragua to move its troops off the territory.
This story struck me because while it states that Costa Rica does not have an army (though it does have a police force that is supposedly armed better than some of Nicaragua's soldiers), it fails to mention the very relevant fact that there is a very well-equipped army within Costa Rica's borders: ours. Given the video we watched about the lack of US media coverage of the military's operations in Panama, this article set of bells in my head because here again we have evidence of the media's continuing failure to report about the thousands of US troops sent to Costa Rica this summer. I still haven't read a single article on the deployment on a mainstream news site, but have found some reports on it on independent websites. BBC does not have any stories either. Given our shady history in Latin America, it makes me a little nervous that major military operations are going completely unnoticed by our media. If this conflict does escalate, how will the US troops there react?
Also of interest, Google is involved in this dispute. Google Maps' depiction of the area in dispute is being contested by Costa Rica. Apparently, Google redrew the border according to"new data from the U.S. State Department." So the federal government apparently has been changing its maps too. What is going on down there?
Costa Rica goes to higher powers
Google Maps changes the border
A second article on Google's role
Roshan, after posting something along the same lines of Google Maps role in territory dispute, I saw that you had already posted this!
ReplyDeleteMapping is such a powerful tool, and when it comes down to local knowledge and agreements vs. how google maps draws the borders, who wins the arguement? That this powerful mapping program under the jurisdiction of U.S. law would be neutral in such a situation is unlikely, especially in this case given the rosy relations of the U.S. with Costa Rica.