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Nicaragua Raids Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-was-just-following-my-gps dept.

Garabito writes "An error on Google Maps has caused an international conflict in Central America. A Nicaraguan military commander, relying on Google Maps, moved troops into an area near San Juan Lake along the border between his country and Costa Rica (Google translation of Spanish original). The troops are accused of setting up camp there, taking down a Costa Rican flag and raising the Nicaraguan flag, doing work to clean up a nearby river, and dumping the sediment in Costa Rican territory."

3 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yeah... by jgagnon · · Score: 4, Informative

    A classic case of misinformation being worse than no information. However, Google does have a disclaimer on the service about possible errors.

    It shouldn't, but it amazes me how a military force from one country can take action based on information from a free service offered by a company in another country. It boggles the mind.

    --
    Remember to maintain your supply of /facepalm oil to prevent chafing.
  2. Re:doing work to clean up a nearby river? by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Informative

    The clueless summary gets it wrong. I live in Costa Rica - the problem isn't dredging the river, it's that Nicaragua is dumping all the gunk on the Costa Rican side of the river and destroying protected forests.

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  3. Happens even with accurate data by benwiggy · · Score: 5, Informative
    It doesn't really matter whether the data is accurate. There are all sorts of diplomatic incidents from soldiers not reading the map correctly.

    For instance, in 2002, the UK Royal Marines accidentally invaded Spain, because of a map reading error.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1827554.stm

    Hence the old joke: "What's the most dangerous thing in the British Army? -- An officer with a map."